


Just Me, Him, and the Sun and Moon

by SadaVeniren



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Pokemon Fusion, Angst, Falling In Love, Farmer Harry, First Time Blow Jobs, Happy Ending, M/M, Pokemon Battle, Professor Louis, Tournaments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 10:51:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 45,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14692665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SadaVeniren/pseuds/SadaVeniren
Summary: Alola!!You have formally been chosen to participate in the FIRST EVER Pokemon World Championship Tournament. We have not made this selection lightly and have weighed your many years as a master pokemon trainer and pokemon friend in our decision to extend this offer to you! We hope that you will accept our offer and join us at the Hano Grand Resort on Akala Island!The tournament will take place starting on May 15, but we request that you join us on May 13 to partake in an opening ceremony. The tournament will last two weeks, and accommodations will be provided for you and your pokemon, but transportation to the island will not (so bring a flying type!)We hope you join us!!Professor Kukui---AKA a gratuitous Pokemon AU featuring farmer!harry, professor!louis, paradise, pokemon battles, love, and the fate of the world





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Gahhhh this has been an adventure, lemme tell you. I have wanted to write this fic since right before Sun and Moon came out and just never felt like I had the time, but I buckled down and wrote it! And I could not be happier with how it turned out. This fic is 100% self indulgent and an excuse for me to be super world-buildy.
> 
> NOTE: the level of pokemon knowledge you need to have to enjoy this fic is hopefully minimal. I tried to make this as accessible as possible. If you have pokemon knowledge though I'm sure you'll catch a lot of references. I'm sticking mostly to the game lore but cherrypicked some parts from the anime. 
> 
> This fic would not have been possible if I hadn't been paired with the absolutely talented, amazing, wonderful Emmi. Seriously I am so so so happy she chose to work on this fic with me and provide art, as well as emotional support to get me through writing this. She definitely went above and beyond her task of fan artist and I am so happy.
> 
> I also wanna thank Cath and Paula for listening to me bitch and cheering me on throughout this ~writing journey~.
> 
> Special shoutout goes to my husband and irl friend (Mina the GOAT) who read over this to see how accessible it was to people with no pokemon knowledge, and for putting up with me talking about this non-stop since January. It's been a journey guys, but we did it.

Every morning was the same for Harry. He woke up with the sun, despite the sleepy protests of Rita, his Pikachu. She only fussed for the few minutes it took him to stumble out of the room, dressed enough to start his day, and then she was back asleep until at least nine. 

Harry headed outside, grabbing the bag of feed for the flock of Pidgeys and Spearows that lived on his property. He always kept something special for his personal Pidgeot, Pidge, and after he fed the other birds, they played a game for Pidge to get the treat.

“Alright, stretch,” he said, watching as Pidge opened his wings as far as he could. It’d been two years since they got caught in a storm around Shoal Cave in Hoenn which caused Pidge to crash into the cliffs, breaking both of his wings. Harry had suffered a broken arm and collarbone from the crash as well and they’d been lucky a hiker found them before the tide had come in. Harry’s bones had healed by now but Pidge would probably never fly again like he had. Harry was still adamant about trying to get his wings back to full potential. “Good boy,” he said once Pidge gave him four reps of 7 stretches. He tossed the poke pastry to him and Pidge angled his head just enough to grab it out of the air.

From there he made sure to throw some feed for the Caterpie and Weedle that took up residence around his small garden. There was a new Butterfree by his rose garden, going about its business pollinating the flowers, and Harry skittered away quickly so he didn’t scare the new pokemon off. He could always use more Butterfrees.

Next he went to his barn. He had two Miltank he’d rescued who needed let out and fed, as well as a couple Ponyta and Tauros. The newest addition to his barn were a mated pair of Girafarig. He headed to them first to make sure they were still settled comfortably. He smiled when he saw they were asleep, necks entwined, and tails keeping a lookout. He waved to their tails before coming into their stall. He made sure to drop their breakfast of grass and hay close enough for their tails to feed on and he gave each tail a pat.

His Blissey, Chance, was tending to the Miltank when he got out of the Girafarig’s stalls. She was chirping at them to walk down to their outside paddock so she could clean their stalls. Sandy, his Garchomp, was doing the same for the Ponyta and Tauros. He couldn’t see Mio, his Persian, but if he had to guess Mio was tucked away in the rafters sleeping since he didn’t need to protect the herd during the day. Between the three of them the pokemon in the barn were put outside and the stalls were all cleaned up by the time Rita finally woke up and made her way out to them. She climbed onto Harry’s shoulder and gave him a morning nuzzle. He could feel the small currents of electricity under her skin but after so many years together it was comforting.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” Harry said, standing up and putting his pitchfork to the side. The Girafarig’s stall was clean and he had fresh bedding down for them.

“Pika,” she said and Harry laughed as she went off with a series of disapproving sounds.

“No, sleeping until nine is definitely still being a sleepyhead. I don’t care if it’s when _normal_ pokemon wake up.” Chance appeared in the stall doorway and let out a series of sing-song chirps. Harry smiled at her. “Yes I’ll go make breakfast now. Is Sandy finished too?”

Chance made a sound of agreement.

“Excellent. She’s heading out to the quarry then?”

Another sound of agreement.

“Great, we’ll go there in the afternoon, after the sun has dropped off, to check on everyone. Have you looked at Pidge this week?”

As they headed back to his house he spoke with Chance about the stretching with Pidge and his thoughts about other rehabilitation they could try. Chance chirped her own yay or nays over his suggestions while Rita rode on his shoulder.

The rest of his little plot of land was starting to come alive in the mid-morning light. He stopped with Chance at the fences of his Tauros pasture just to take a moment and soak everything in. He could see the Tauros calf he had playing with the rest of the herd. His Ponyta were racing each other through the fields the next pasture over. Off in the distance he could hear the grunts and smashes coming from the quarry, meaning the Geodude and Onix that lived at the base of the mountain were hard at work mining.

On the other side of the pastures, passed the Girafarig who were lazily going about their business, was a forest that surrounded the farm. It was where the Caterpie and Weedle went when the sun got too high in the sky, but it also housed other, shyer, wild pokemon. Harry didn’t try and venture into the woods that much anymore, preferring to let the wild pokemon live as freely as possible. That was his entire philosophy in owning and running this village. 

He wanted to provide a pokemon sanctuary that was as non-intrusive as possible to the outside world, and so far he was pretty sure he’d accomplished that. He had his farm, and the quarry, and if he walked a half mile down the mountain he’d come to the edge of the ocean where he kept his saltwater pokemon happy. With the help of Sandy he’d created a natural river that cut through his farm from inside the forest that his freshwater pokemon could live in.

It was really perfect.

“Pika pik, pikachu,” Rita said from his shoulder.

Harry sighed as he reached up and pet between her ears. “I know, I need to get out of the sun before I burn.”

“Pik,” Rita said as Chance started to cluck and chirp in worry, already reaching into her apron to pull out sunscreen. Harry stood there as Chance slapped the sunscreen on his cheeks and rubbed it in as best she could.

“You are aware sunburn isn’t going to kill me, right?”

Chance puffed up in anger and her cheeks turned red as she pursed her lips. She didn’t say anything as she added more sunscreen to his neck and the small amount of skin exposed on the back of his neck. Only when she was done and had the sunscreen put away did she finally launch into a series of ranting noises that Harry could barely begin to decipher. She was very obviously not happy with him though and he ducked his head in apology.

“Okay, okay! I understand! I won’t be so lazy with my sunscreen.”

That seemed to finally appease Chance and she walked back towards the house. Harry rolled his eyes and rubbed in the rest of the sunscreen Chance hadn’t. Rita patted his cheek as he started off after Chance.

He made himself some lunch, and Rita breakfast, once he got back inside. The scent of food woke up Eve, his Umbreon, and he came trotting out of his corner sleepily. He rubbed his head against Harry’s leg until Harry reached down to pet him.

“Your life is so hard,” he said as he handed Eve a piece of food. “You know you don’t need to wake up, right? Everyone knows you went to bed as the sun was coming up.” Eve just purred as he swallowed the food Harry gave him. Harry knew he’d be back in his bed once lunch was finished. When Harry looked away from Eve to go back to making lunch he caught the sight of Rita trying to toss together a salad and he laughed. “What are you doing?”

Rita gave him a look. “Pikachu pika pika pik.”

“Alright, alright, we’ll bring some lunch out to Darcy and Sandy. But we’re gonna need to add some meat to that if you want them to eat it.”

Rita walked over to the fridge and pulled out some of the fish Harry’d bought so she could add it to the salad. It was cute to watch her try and stir the salad but Harry knew he had to let her do it or else she’d get testy with him.

After they were all done with lunch Harry packed up some of the salad to bring it to the quarry. Chance was headed back to the barn to milk the Miltanks and she waved happily as they parted, Rita on his shoulder and Eve back in his corner.

Harry could hear the sounds from the quarry long before he even got there. The rock and fighting pokemon that worked in the quarry were always in the process of making bricks and other building materials that Harry could then send down to Viridian City and sell in some of the shops in Kanto. He didn’t need to sell them for very high, just enough to produce a profit to keep the farm running.

The first thing he saw when he got into the mouth of the quarry was Sandy helping organize a pallet of newly formed bricks with a Golem. Behind them was an assembly line of Geodudes and Gravelers who smashed and then shaped fallen rock into bricks, that were then picked up by Machoke and organized onto pallets. Sandy and the Golem would look them over before moving them to the mouth of the quarry so they could be carried down to Viridian City at the end of the week.

“Hi!” Harry called, drawing Sandy’s attention. “I brought everyone lunch!”

The Golem let out a roar that had everyone stopping what they were doing. Harry could only assume they were breaking for lunch. Harry and Rita unpacked the lunches they’d packed and began handing them out to the pokemon.

He didn’t get to come to the quarry every day so he made sure when he did make it out here that it was with a special treat.

“Where’s Darcy?” He asked Sandy while she ate the food Rita had made her.

Sandy pointed up the side of the mountain. Harry had to shield his eyes to get a good look but then he saw the orange blob that had to be Darcy from a distance. She must have been up there pulling rocks down. He raised two fingers up to his mouth and whistled. The high pitch sound echoed through the quarry and it took a moment but then a large shadow was hovering over him.

Harry truly believed he loved all of his pokemon equally, but he knew deep down there were certain pokemon that had a special place in his heart. Rita because she was his starter. Pidge because he was the first pokemon Harry had ever caught. Eve had been a gift from a stranger in Celadon CIty who could no longer take care of him. Sandy was the first pokemon he’d stumbled across when he went to Sinnoh. He’d raised Chance from an egg. And Darcy… well Darcy he’d stolen when she was just a baby Dratini.

She’d been locked in a cage in the back of Celadon City’s game market, a prize being sold by a local gang. Rita had found her and practically dragged Harry to Darcy’s cage and demanded he do something. So Harry had broken Darcy and the Abra they’d kept caged up out. He’d only done it with the intention of freeing Darcy to the sea once he got there, but by the time he got to the ocean Darcy and he had already bonded too deeply for him to release her.

So yeah, Darcy had a soft spot in his heart.

She let out a happy roar as she landed as gingerly as a giant bipedal dragon could before wrapping Harry in a hug. He laughed as he hugged her back, unable to really move because of how strong she was.

“It’s like you haven’t seen me in forever!” He said once she put him back down.

Darcy was in charge of shipping the pallets and other materials to Viridian City so every week she’d spend two days transporting them herself, and when she got back she joined everyone at the quarry bringing down more rocks from the cliffs so they could safely produce more. This meant her time spent with Harry was more limited than his other pokemon and therefore she was incredibly affectionate when she did see him.

She was ecstatic when she saw he’d brought her food and she took a big seat right in front of him to eat it.

Harry smiled as he watched all of his pokemon eating and relaxing. Rita was playing with one of the Machoke, some sort of game of catch, while Sandy took a quick nap.

There was a high pitched chirp that flew overhead and Harry looked up just in time to see Celebi fly above them, venturing out of the forest to check on them. Harry waved at Celebi and then closed his eyes, because everything was absolutely perfect.

***

Most people probably found the sounds of beeping machines aggravating but to Louis there was nothing more soothing. The constant BEEP BEEP BEEP that filled his workroom was the exact kind of background noise he needed to concentrate on typing up reports and data. Today at least three of his twenty eggs should hatch: Bunnelby B4, Bunnelby B5, and Bunnelby B6. He’d pulled the Talonflame he normally had sitting on the eggs off so he could properly monitor the heartbeats and vitals of the pokemon inside. Once they were hatched he’d be able to properly record just how much stronger they were than their control counterparts who had hatched two weeks ago.

The waiting part was the thing he found most annoying.

“Do you see anything yet, Foxy?” Louis asked as he walked by the three eggs’ incubator for the fourth time in two minutes.

Foxy, his Delphox, rolled her eyes at him and floated away from him while holding up three fingers.

“Three? Three what? Days? Hours? Minutes? Foxy come on, you know I hate when you do that!”

She didn’t answer him of course. They’d been working together for over fifteen years now and she knew exactly how to press his buttons, and seeing into the future and _not telling him anything_ was the biggest button he probably had. Especially when it had to do with his research.

Louis tapped his clipboard against his head to try and calm himself down. He was only so anxious because he was pretty positive this time he had something. He’d been studying pokemon breeding since before he got into university, and once he finally did go to uni he’d gravitated towards elite breeding, the idea that pokemon could be breed to be stronger in certain areas.

This was his second test with a mammal pokemon, after his tests with three different types of bug pokemon had all been successful. The first generation of Bunnelby he’d hatched hadn’t shown any improvements, not the way the bug pokemon had, but he _hypothesized_ that for mammals it might take a few generations. Hence Bunnelby B generation.

Patsy, his Gardevoir, floated by with a tray of notes for him to look over and distract himself with and he thanked her.

“At least one of you care about me,” he muttered, knowing Foxy would hear and still not give him a better idea of what was to come.

His notes on the first generation of Bunnelby kept his attention long enough that he knew Foxy’s “three” no longer referred to minutes, but that meant he probably had a few hours to kill and he was _not_ looking forward to that.

He was pulled away from his moping by a trill from Eve, his Sylveon. He was standing on his hind legs looking into the incubators and Louis realized one of the eggs was beginning to shake.

Louis was positive he looked ridiculous as he scurried over to stand beside Eve and look in at the shaking eggs. He’d definitely knocked into one cart of files and startled Patsy who started to reprimand him, while Foxy laughed. He didn’t care though. He resisted the urge to press his hands and face to the glass by petting Eve. His eyes were glued to the eggs.

“This is it,” he said as one egg cracked.

Some pokemon took only minutes to break out of their eggs but others took some time. The middle egg was one of the ones that had no problem with hatching. It almost immediately had a large crack running through the middle and Louis could see the paw of a baby Bunnelby coming out of the egg.

He moved to his computer terminal so he could begin moving the mechanical arms inside the incubator to hook wires and sensors up the newly hatched Bunnelby. The tests he was going to run were going to take at least an hour each so he wanted to start them as soon as possible. Once the Bunnelby was hooked up he jumped away from his terminal and grabbed his step ladder so he could open the top of the incubator and finally touch the newly hatched pokemon. Foxy brought over the bag of Poke Pellets he had for the Bunnelby to eat and Louis took a handful before reaching into the incubator.

Like almost all newborn pokemon, Bunnelby were fully developed from birth, able to eat normal food and water, and within a couple hours would be completely independent. It would take a few weeks for them to grow to full size, by which point Louis should be done with using most of the Bunnelby and he could donate them to a local farm right outside the Lumiose City.

“Hey there little guy,” Louis said as he held out some pellets. The first Bunnelby sniffed at his hand and then ate one, two, three pellets in quick succession. Louis smiled and pet the pokemon with his free hand. “Can I get a little help lifting this little one up so I can check the physical status of Bunnelby B5?”

Foxy reached in beside him to lift B5 up so Louis could check the sex, a boy, and then give him a quick physical.

“The fur looks glossy, eyes and ears look clean. Paws are within the average size so we aren’t looking at anything abnormally large, just in case that does contribute to strength. Patsy you’re getting this all down right?” Patsy made a low sound of agreement and Louis nodded to himself. “Great, yeah. Physically B5 looks in good health, if completely average, just like the control group. Which means any differences will show up on our sensor tests. We bred him out for speed so hopefully….” Louis trailed off just as Eve let out another trill to indicate a second Bunnelby had hatched. 

Bunnelby B4. 

Instead of Louis running back to his terminal Patsy took over, moving the mechanical arms just like Louis had. Then it was just a matter of repeating everything he’d done with B5 to B4. This one was a girl and she was a bit more adventurous than B5. Louis had Patsy take note of her nature difference while he rattled off more information about her coat, paws, ears, and eyes.

They repeated it all over again with B6 when she finally punched out of her shell and by the time they were done with her the first test for B5 was printing out. Louis rushed over to the printer and grabbed the readout, muttering the results out loud.

“Strength is coming in at a 29, abilities at a 29, constitution at a 30 and,” he swallowed as his eyes welled up in relief. “Speed is a 31. Foxy, Patsy, Eve, we got one! His speed is absolutely perfect! And all his other stats are so high, if B4 and B6 show similar results we might be able to use them in a third generation. The tests might actually be working.” He let out a shaky breath as he looked at the paper. Tears were starting to drop onto it and he quickly wiped his eyes.

Patsy handed him a box of tissues and he laughed as he took one.

“Thanks, I’m just so, so relieved. After the first generation I thought maybe I was wrong and I didn’t know how long we’d have to wait until I accepted that but this, _this_ looks like progress!”

Eve nuzzled his hip and Louis dropped to his knees to hug him around the neck. “I love you three so much. Thank you for being here with me.” He felt as both Foxy and Patsy knelt down and joined the hug and he soaked up the good feeling from the three of them.

Eventually they all separated and Louis headed to his computer so he could begin processing the data while he waited for the next report. He got lost in his work, ecstatic when B4 had perfect constitution like they had bred her for, and disappointed when B6 was just average. He tried not to let it deter him from the positives though. It was too small of a pool to bank his research grant on yet. He had seventeen more Bunnelby to look at so then he could compare the ratio of perfect stated in the control group to the ones he had specifically bred for. He really, _really_ hoped it went in his favor.

Louis didn’t notice how much time had passed until his Holo Caster started ringing, startling him away from the computer because of how loud it was. He scrambled to answer it, already feeling bad because it was obvious it had woken Eve up.

His sister’s hologram appeared in his lab and she looked _pissed_. “Louis, where the hell are you?”

“Lots? What do you mean?” He looked around for a clock but he’d taken down the clock that had been mounted to the wall the other day because the stress of keeping track of time was driving him mad waiting for the eggs to hatch. He started looking around his desk for his PokeGear but Lottie was speaking even before he could begin to find it under the pile of papers.

“It’s fucking eight o’clock at night! You’ve _completely_ missed dinner.”

Louis found his PokeGear and popped it open to display the time.

_8:03_

“What… but I was just… here for lunch? Because the Bunnelby.” He looked up at Foxy and Patsy, both of whom were shrugging at him. It wasn’t like they had a way to keep track of time. He stood up and grabbed their Poke Balls, putting everyone away as he hurried out of his office. “Is mom pissed?”

“Uh, yes?”

“Tell her I’m on my way right now. I got totally side tracked but I’ll be there in like 10 minutes. I’m just leaving the lab and I need to get across town.” His mom’s house was right on the edge of Route 4 and Lumiose so if he ran he could make it. “Please, _please_ tell her not to be mad.”

Lottie laughed at him as he began to run. He’d be sweaty and gross by the time he got to her house but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. He hung up with Lottie and barrelled out of the lab, waving goodbye to the receptionist as he did.

He was so fucking dead.

***

The weather was getting nicer so Harry didn’t absolute hate going down the mountain to the beach so he could spend some time in the water, with his aquatic pokemon. Darcy loved the water, and he had a Blastoise he’d rescued years ago that he let out so they could play together. There were a few wild Staryu and Seels that weren’t completely afraid to come up and join Darcy and Blastoise, as long as Harry stayed tucked away on the beach.

That was fine by him. He’d brought a towel down with him and was laid out on the sand. He kept a shirt on, least Chance showed up and buried him in sunscreen while his eyes were closed. He could hear the splashing of water and he hoped that the pokemon were enjoying themselves.

Something landed beside him and a shadow came over him. He cracked an eye open and was met with a large beak.

“What the?” He said as he startled.

He didn’t recognize the pokemon staring him down and of course he didn’t have his pokedex with him. He kept it in a drawer in his desk unless he was travelling somewhere, thinking there was no need to bring it. Apparently that was not the case.

The pokemon had a long multi-colored beak, and it vaguely resembled a toucan. A giant toucan mind you, because this pokemon had to be at least three feet tall. It stuck out a blue talon and Harry finally noticed it had a tube attached to his leg.

“Oh. Um. Thank you?” He took the tube from the pokemon. It was labeled “Harry Styles: Pokemon Trainer.

“Pika?” Rita asked, climbing up onto his shoulder because she was nothing if not nosey so leaving the water to come see what he was doing was nothing new.

“I got a letter?” Harry said as he opened it and pulled out the piece of paper.

_Alola!!_

_You have formally been chosen to participate in the FIRST EVER Pokemon World Championship Tournament. We have not made this selection lightly and have weighed your many years as a master pokemon trainer and pokemon friend in our decision to extend this offer to you! We hope that you will accept our offer and join us at the Hano Grand Resort on Akala Island!_

Harry looked at the pokemon who had delivered the letter. “You’re from Alola?” Harry had never made his way out to the island region of Alola, though he’d heard it was beautiful. “No wonder you look so tropical,” he said to the pokemon.

The pokemon just looked at him severely and nodded as if to tell Harry to continue reading the letter.

_If you decide to participate please attach your response to the Toucannon who delivered this letter!_

_The tournament will take place starting on May 15, but we request that you join us on May 13 to partake in an opening ceremony. The tournament will last two weeks, and accommodations will be provided for you and your pokemon, but transportation to the island will not (so bring a flying type!)_

_Please note: per tournament rules you are allowed six pokemon and two alternates. Please do not bring more than the allotted pokemon._

_We hope you join us!!_

_Professor Kukui_

“Piiiika,” Rita said.

“You said it,” Harry said, eyes still on the letter. “I’m not sure I can do it though, Rita.”

He didn’t even need to look at her to know she had puffed up in anger. The tiny shock that went through his shoulder was a surprise though. “What the fuck! Did you just shock me?” He asked as he whipped his head around to look at her on his shoulder.

Rita’s face was flushed red with anger and she launched into a rant, hand gestures and all.

“Alright, alright!” He finally said. “All I’m saying is that we haven’t battled in _ages_. Not since that one kid from Johto came up here, and that must have been at least three years ago?” Pidge had still been part of his team at the time.

Rita let out a sound that conveyed “who cares!”

Harry could only laugh in disbelief. “Fine. I’ll accept the offer. Even though we’re gonna lose.” There had been in a pen in the tube and Harry scribbled out a quick response saying he accepted. He attached it back to the Toucannon’s leg and after a quick check the Toucannon took off.

Harry laid back on the towel. What was he was gonna do?

“Maybe I shouldn’t have done that. Who’s gonna look after the farm?”

“Pikachu, pik pik.”

“I feel like it does matter. I can put the quarry on hold but someone needs to take care of the barn…” Harry knew he was mostly just making excuses. He had people he could call who’d be more than happy to help run the farm while he was gone. “I suppose I should start thinking about who’ll be on my team. Eight pokemon out of everyone?” Rita pointed to herself and Harry laughed. “Well yes, there’s one. You, Darcy, Eve, Chance, Sandy.” He pursed his lips in thought. “I think Mio would like to come along too, better than lounging in the barn. That’s six. We’ll need a flying type and another, definitely a fire type even though Darcy can come through in a pinch…” Harry hummed in thought. “Do you think Ninetails, or should I try and get in contact with Charizard?”

Rita looked thoughtful and then shook her head. She looked at him and flapped her paws.

“Right, yeah. A flying type. I think Darcy could get us there,” he trailed off when Rita gave him a look. It was hard for him because Pidge had been such a staple in his team for so long. He didn’t know who else he could take.

Rita made another flapping motion and made a sound that sort of resembled... 

“No. I’m not bringing Lugia. That’s not fair, they’re a legendary. It wouldn’t be right to use them in-”

Rita held up a paw. “Pikachu. Pika pika pik pik.”

“I,” Harry blew out a breath. “Okay the rules don’t say _not_ to bring legendaries but it’s the principle of the thing! I’ll think on it and decide later. We have like a month to get ready anyway.”

Rita at least seemed satisfied.

***

Louis left his mother’s house feeling less like an awful son than he had expected. Since he’d completely missed dinner two weeks ago, this week he’d made sure to set three different alarms, and even put the clock back up in his lab. He’d made some serious headway with Generation B: with twelve of the twenty Bunnelby receiving a perfect score versus the one out of twenty in the control group, it really showed that there was some serious possibility of controlling the breeding for pokemon to produce desirable traits. He was now on the third generation of Bunnelby and they weren’t expected to hatch until later this week, so it had been okay to leave work early to ensure he saw his family.

Dinner had been good, though. His mother had imposed a strict “no work talk” policy when they first started doing dinner so it had been easy to listen instead of rambling about his latest experiments. His family would read all about his discoveries in the coming months when he published his research after all. 

So he listened to updates on his many siblings: Lottie the closest in age to him finishing up beauty school, Fizzy, next youngest, was starting university, Phoebe and Daisy, the oldest set of twins, were off in Santalune City during their first year as pokemon trainers (Louis was only slightly jealous because he’d had to fight his mother tooth and nail to go off on his own but by kids four and five she barely batted an eye), and the babies, Doris and Ernest, were just starting elementary school. 

Not to mention all the latest on the Gogoat League, which his family followed religiously. His mother had been a top Gogoat rider before she’d had him, so following it was a family tradition.

Needless to say there was a lot of catch up on.

When he finally left his mother gave him a kiss on the cheek and a reminder to not work so hard.

“I love you, my boy,” she said. “Don’t forget dinner again though, or I’ll replace you with Lottie as my favorite.”

Louis laughed and hugged her. “Thanks, mom.”

The walk home from her house was quiet as he headed down Route 4. It gave him time to unwind from the noise and chaos of his mother’s house. He didn’t even notice the pokemon swoop down until it landed on his shoulder.

“What the?” He jumped and the pokemon hopped off and instead landed on the fence lining the road.

[ ](https://78.media.tumblr.com/2f4020fbf18fc8f8aedc9d84337af4a7/tumblr_p8xb35C1zY1qhgtd3o3_1280.jpg)

He didn’t recognize it, though it was a black bird with a large orange and yellow striped beak. He pulled out his pokedex from his pocket.

_Pokemon not found. Please update Pokedex._

“Huh?” He said, tilting his head in confusion.

The bird pokemon cawed at him and held out its leg.

“Oh, you have a letter for me,” Louis said, taking the tube that was attached to its leg. It had his name on it and he pulled out the letter to read it. He could feel himself get excited as he read to the end of the letter and he looked at the pokemon he now knew as Toucannon. “Alola. Well no wonder the pokedex didn’t recognize you.” Louis had only been to a few other regions, and that was always for work. He just didn’t have time to take off for a vacation to somewhere like Alola.

His heart was pounding in excitement. He hadn’t had a good pokemon battle for years, too cooped up in the lab, but he _was_ still a Kalos champion. It wasn’t an honor many people could claim and the fact that he’d done it by the time he was sixteen had been incredibly impressive. His mind was already running over who he’d bring with him: Foxy, Eve, Patsy, his Aerodactyl, Ptera, his Altaria, Puff Ball. There were so many options! The letter didn’t say anything about prohibitions either, like some tournaments, which meant he could probably bring his Gengar, Casper, and his Mega Stone, as a trump card. No other region had access to Kalos’ Mega Stone research, after all. His right hand drifted down to the bracelet he still wore on his left wrist that held the Gengarite he got from another a trainer in Laverre City.

 _Yes_ , this was going to be good.

He quickly answered the letter and sent the Toucannon off, a bounce in his step as he got back into Lumiose City. It wasn’t until he walked passed the street that took him to his lab that he remembered he was in the middle of an experiment.

“Shit.”

He didn’t have _time_ to do two weeks on some tropical island. He felt himself drop physically, shoulders slouching. He headed towards his lab. He should probably check on the eggs. He’d left Baby, his Togetic, in charge while he was gone for dinner, because he trusted him to take good care of the eggs in a way Foxy and Patsy couldn’t. They were better for helping him with the actual data than just watching the eggs.

He waved to the night security guard as he came into the building and made his way upstairs to his lab.

He’d _really_ wanted to go to this tournament too.

“Fuck.”

“Woah there, Tomlinson! Haven’t heard you swear like that since uni!”

Louis looked up and was greeted with the sight of Professor Sycamore, who worked in one of the labs downstairs on Mega Stones, waiting for the elevator next to him. “Hey, Sycamore, just frustrated.”

“Why? I heard you telling that Delphox of yours how excited you were with this next batch of Bunnelby.”

Louis looked around to make sure they were alone. He wasn’t sure how much people were supposed to know about this new tournament. “I, uh, got an invitation today from Professor Kukui in Alola.”

Professor Sycamore’s eyes narrowed. “He’s not trying to poach you for their own labs, is he? I know they have the Aether Foundation over there but I’m not sure that’s up your alley, no matter how shiny their tech is.”

Louis laughed. “No, no, it was for a tournament they’re hosting in Alola. Apparently it’s gonna be world wide, pokemon champions from all regions were invited.”

“And they picked you? Well no shit! You’re a great battler! Both with and without pokemon I suppose.”

Louis felt the familiar tug of guilt at the pit of his stomach at the mention of his one and only physical fight. He’d been sixteen and it _was_ to save the world from Team Flare. _You do not need to feel bad for surviving,_ his mom’s voice rang in his head, something she’d said hundreds of times to him since he was a teenager. 

“It doesn’t matter, I can’t go I realized. Don’t have the time to take off from this research.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well if my guess is right I’ll probably breed roughly another fifty percent of perfect Bunnelby this generation, but to get one with all perfect stats it will take maybe four more generations? And I have the momentum _now_ , I just can’t take off the time.”

“I can look after your experiments for you.”

“What?”

“Yeah. You’re not gonna take your Togetic are you? I don’t ever remember you battling with him, so he can stay back and help me out.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course! How could I not? You deserve the chance to go and show the world how good you are as a trainer.”

Louis couldn’t believe it. His heart was starting to race in excitement again. “Thank you, thank you so much!”

“It’s no problem. Now tell me, who do you have in mind for your team to show those other regions what they’re missing with Mega Stones?” Professor Sycamore asked him.

Louis grinned.


	2. Chapter 2

The flight from Lumiose City to the island resort wasn’t as long as Louis expected. He and Ptera had never flown this long together and while they didn’t need to stop off at Ambrette town before they hit the ocean, Louis felt safer to give Ptera a rest before they made the trip over open ocean. The closest of the Sevii Islands were almost 200 miles away after all, and that was…a long way aways. So they stopped off on Three Island, then hopped over to Seven Island, before making the trip to Alola, and Akala Island.

All in all the trip only took almost a full day. He’d left at first light and arrived on the landing pad outside the resort right as the sun was beginning to set. It cast the entire beach sky in beautiful pinks, oranges, and yellows, and when Louis dismounted from Ptera he turned to look at the sky.

“Wow,” he said. He took a deep breath of the fresh sea air and felt himself settle into an inner peace. Any lingering doubts he’d had faded away now that he was here. He could already tell that Alola was going to be a place of relaxation and beauty, the perfect thing to recharge him.

“Alola!” Louis turned towards the voice and was greeted by a teenage boy dressed in a black tanktop and bright orange swim trunks. “Are you here for the tournament?”

“Yes! Hello, sorry this is my first time in Alola. I’m Professor Louis Tomlinson.” Now that he was looking away from the sea he could see the beach was littered with people.

The teenager smiled. “Nice to meet you Professor Tomlinson! Registration will be opening up at 6:30 and you’ll be able to go up to the resort but for now you’re welcome to mingle with the other trainers gathered here! I believe there are some from Kalos already here.”

Louis grabbed his bag off of Ptera’s back and put him back in his Poke Ball. “Thanks so much?” He trailed off, not sure what the boy’s name was.

“Oh sorry, I’m Hau! I’ll be helping with registration, so if you ever need anything just let me know.” He waved as Louis climbed down from the landing pad and onto the beach.

Louis double checked that he had all of his Poke Balls. He’d settled on a decently diverse team, with most of his strongest pokemon. He’d brought Foxy, Eve, Ptera, Patsy, Casper, Puff Ball as his main team, with the main plan being the use of Mega Stones, and Eel, his Dragonite, and Xerneas as his alternates, to provide depth and strength.

He wasn’t dressed for the sand at all, in trainers and some jeans, but he managed to make walking through the sand work. He spotted Valerie, from Laverre City, talking with another trainer that Louis only vaguely recognized and he headed over to her.

“Louis!” Valerie said, smiling softly. “It’s been years. How are you?”

“Good, good.” He said as he dropped his bag at his feet. “Working you know? How are you? How’s the gym?”

“It’s as it has always been. Many challengers come through, few succeed. Have you met Sabrina? She’s the gym leader in Saffron City, in Kanto.”

“I thought I recognized her but I don’t believe we’ve ever met. Hello, I’m Professor Louis Tomlinson.” He held out his hand and shook Sabrina’s hand.

She was smiling at him almost as serenely as Valerie and Louis could see why they probably got along. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Louis. I can tell you will have an amazing time here, meeting such a perfect person and having such adventures.”

Louis tilted his head to the side in confusion as Valerie giggled. He remembered now that Sabrina claimed to have psychic powers but he’d never given it much thought. “Ignore her,” Valerie said, “she doesn’t mean any harm with her predictions.”

Louis had no idea what to say to that but Sabrina quickly distracted him by asking about his research and he fell easily into explaining his latest bits of work before asking her about her own gym. Other people arrived in trickles the closer it got to 6:30, flying in on different pokemon. A few trainers even came in surfing, and Louis sized up each pokemon: a Gyrados, a couple Pidgeot, a Charizard. He spotted Drasna flying in on her Noivern and he had to smile.

It was pretty normal up until a large shadow cast over the entire beach. Louis looked up just in time to see a giant green serpent in the sky and his eyes went wide.

Someone had flown in on Rayquaza.

“Oh Liam,” Sabrina said from beside him. “He loves to make an entrance.”

“You know him?” Louis asked, watching as the man riding Rayquaza climbed off of them and put them away in the Poke Ball. It looked like a fucking Great Ball at that and Louis could only roll his eyes.

“I’ve never met him,” Sabrina said.

Louis supposed it wasn’t hard to make the assumption that this Liam guy loved to make an entrance though. He’d arrived on a legendary pokemon after all. “Excuse me,” Louis said, because he couldn’t let this pass. He needed to speak with this guy, if only to tell him he was completely ridiculous.

“Hey Liam!” Louis called, and the man looked over at him from where he was speaking with Hau.

“Hello? Do we know each other?”

“Nope, Sabrina told me your name.”

“Sabrina?”

Louis waved his hand dismissively. “She’s psychic or something, nevermind that. I wanted to talk to you about that stunt you just pulled. Don’t you think it’s a little dramatic?”

Liam had broad shoulders, which he used to shrug nonchalantly. “I just want to make sure people know I’m here.”

“Oh we know now, and now we’ll be prepared. Not the smartest thing to do, blowing your wad on the introduction.”

“I’m sorry, and you are?”

Louis held out his hand. “Professor Louis Tomlinson. From Kalos. I research pokemon breeding practices.”

“I thought they were only inviting gym leaders and pokemon champions to this tournament,” Liam said as he shook Louis’ hand.

“Oh, I’m also the youngest Kalos pokemon champion. Defeated the league at sixteen.” He flashed his teeth when he smiled and Liam’s hand tightened around his before finally withdrawing.

“Of course. Well, you probably know about me.”

“Nope. Told you, only knew who you were cause Sabrina told me.”

“Liam Payne, gym leader in Dewford Town in Hoenn. Held the position for about eight years now. Beat my own league at eighteen and then did some training in Unova and Alola.”

“And found yourself Rayquaza?”

Liam grinned. “You scared of a little legendary? I’m sure I’m not the only trainer with one.”

“You aren’t, but like I said, it’s better to keep our cards close to our chest.”

“So you _do_ have a legendary.”

“I’m not about to tell you,” Louis said.

Whatever Liam was about to say was cut off by another trainer arriving. Louis felt the wind of the pokemon landing, since they were still close to the landing pad, and he looked over to see someone arriving on Latias, and he let out a sigh just as he heard Liam laugh.

“Guess I’m not the only one who decided to show off a little.”

“Does no one understand the art of subtly? Fucking hell.”

A man with blond tipped hair climbed off of Latias, giving her head a kiss as he walked passed her before putting her away in a Poke Ball.

“Hi there!” He called, waving at them. “This where we’re supposed to meet for the tournament?”

Louis looked around and realized that Hau wasn’t here to greet the man. “Yeah. We can’t go to the resort until 6:30 so we’re waiting out here.”

The man looked at his watch. “I have great timing then. Almost time to go in.” He stopped in front of them. “Niall Horan, reigning pokemon champion of Sinnoh for six years and counting.” Louis and Liam both introduced themselves and Niall clapped his hands together in glee. “Great to meet some new faces. I’m so stoked with this tournament. Haven’t had the chance to participate in one in forever. You’d think being pokemon champion would be all battles all the time but you’d be so fucking wrong. Barely anyone can get passed the Elite Four to challenge me. It fucking sucks.”

Louis couldn’t help but laugh, some of his annoyance at Niall arriving on a legendary pokemon dissolving. “I wouldn’t know, but I suppose it makes sense.”

“I only get a few battles a week usually,” Liam said. “Plenty of people try but most of them can’t defeat the couple of trainers I have hanging around out front so,” he shrugged.

“No shit,” Niall said. “I always wanted to ask, did you always run a dedicated team or was it something you focused on after you got picked to run the gym?”

“I was always drawn to fighting type pokemon,” Liam said. “I tried catching a variety of pokemon but most of them ended up sitting in a box and I felt bad so I ended up releasing a lot of them and focusing on my team.”

“I could never do that,” Niall said, and Louis nodded. “I’m a hoarder by nature and I get way too attached to each pokemon I catch. It’s why when I beat the league and they offered me a job I said I couldn’t be a gym leader.”

Louis was about to interject when another blast of air hit them, signalling someone else was landing. Louis’ back was turned but he saw the way Liam’s eyes widened before darting over to him with a smirk. “You’re gonna be pissed.”

Louis rolled his eyes. What was it now? Was it a Reshiram? One of the legendary birds? Fucking hell, he should have brought Yveltal instead of Ptera. Really made an entrance.

“Holy shit,” Niall said, “it’s fucking Lugia.”

Louis was about to remind him that he’d flown in on his own legendary but then what he said hit him.

Lugia.

Louis turned around just in time to see Lugia land, kicking up sand with its large wings. There was only one trainer who had Lugia.

“I can’t believe Harry Styles showed the fuck up,” Niall said.

Louis couldn’t either. Harry Styles was… Louis read stories of Harry Styles. Harry Styles had defeated the Elite Four of Kanto when he was thirteen, the youngest of any pokemon champion across the pokemon world, and then six months later he’d run through Johto’s league. Rumors constantly swirled about him, and the pokemon he’d managed to collect. His stories had made it to Kalos while Louis was training to beat his own set of Elite Four and they had spurned him on. Louis had wanted to be exactly like Harry Styles.

Liam nudged his shoulder. “Think your mouth is hanging open there. What happened to coming in on legendaries is a power play and we shouldn’t show off like that, huh?”

Louis smacked his arm. “That doesn’t apply to _Harry Styles_. Do you even _know_ him? He’s a legend by himself. Youngest pokemon champion in the entire world. He _invented_ capturing legendary pokemon. No one dared to try until he did it first. And now he spends his time saving pokemon up in Mt. Silver.” Louis took a deep breath. “He’s _perfect_.”

Niall let out a low whistle. “Someone’s got a crush. Whelp, guess we’ll just have to get you the chance to meet him.”

Louis shot Niall a desperate look. “Oh no. No, no, no. I am _not_ ready to meet Harry Styles.”

“Too bad,” Niall said, but he was cut off from doing anything by an announcement going off.

**”All World Champion pokemon trainers you may now report to the main entrance of the resort! Orientation will begin in ten minutes!”**

Harry Styles walked right passed them without giving them another look. There was a Pikachu perched on his shoulder and Louis had to take a deep breath because it was seriously Harry Styles in the flesh. Harry Styles with curly brown hair tied up in a patterned headscarf, wearing jeans and a plaid button up.

“Let’s go after him,” Niall said but Louis managed to grab him by the arm just in time.

“We are _not_ meeting with Harry Styles. Do you understand me? Not fucking happening. Not tonight.”

***

Harry was starting to feel awkward. There was a reason he spent most of his time tucked away on his farm, away from other people. He didn’t know how to interact with anyone. He’d talked with a doctor once about it and they said it was probably because of how he’d found fame at such a young age. It had made it hard for him to process meaningful interaction with other people, especially new people. So he stuck with pokemon. Pokemon were easy.

Rita was a comforting presence at least, perched on his shoulder as he moved up the line to the registration desk. Other trainers he didn’t recognize stood around him and he craved for a familiar face above all else. But nothing came and he was called up to the desk without seeing anyone he knew.

“Alola! Name and region please?” The woman sitting in front of him asked.

“Harry Styles, from Kanto.”

The woman looked up at him and smiled. “It’s a pleasure to have you, Mr. Styles. And this must be the famous Rita.”

Harry blinked in surprise before his brain caught up and reminded him that of course people recognized Rita.

“Pikaaa,” Rita said, waving at the woman.

It made her smile even more before she collected herself and began inputting data into her computer. “I’ll need your Poke Balls so I can register your team. I’ll manually put in Rita for you.”

Harry nodded and pulled his Poke Balls off of his belt. He’d decided his main team would consist of Rita, Mio, Chance, Lugia, Eve, and Sandy. He’d use Darcy and Kitsune, his Ninetails, as alternates. The woman exchanged his Poke Balls for a clipboard.

“I just need you to fill this survey out really quick. Every trainer will be sharing a room and we’re trying to personality match to make sure you come out with an enjoyable experience.”

Harry looked down at the five question survey.

What was your starter pokemon?  
Are you a morning person or an evening person?  
What is your favorite pokemon type?  
If you could be any pokemon for a day which one would it be?  
What are pokemon to you?

It was a simple survey and he had no idea what they were going to do with this kind of information, or how they’d end up matching people up with it. He filled it out quickly, and handed back the clipboard to the woman at the same time the registration was finished on his pokemon.

“Thank you very much, Mr. Styles. Please make your way into the main conference room and help yourself to the open buffet and bar. Have a wonderful time in Alola.”

Harry headed into the conference room. He didn’t know how many trainers there were invited but there were only fifty or so people already mingling inside the conference room. He knew he’d been one of the last trainers in line as well, so that didn’t seem too bad.

“Styles, what a surprise to see you here.” Harry looked up to see Brock, from the Pewter City Gym coming up to him.

He smiled. “Hey, you. How’s the family?”

Brock laughed as he embraced Harry, and when he pulled away he made sure to pat Rita on her head. “We’re good. How’s the farm? I know I haven’t been up there in awhile. Can’t get away from the gym.”

“It’s good, it’s good. Busy. I just got a mated pair of Girafarig right before I got the invitation to come here.”

“Expanding. That’s really good. That quarry you have does a lot of good. We’ve been able to build a lot of towns in Kanto up because of what you’re doing up there.” Harry ducked his head. He didn’t work on the farm to get praised. “But don’t think that means I’m not looking forward to kicking the crap out of you these next two weeks.”

Harry laughed. “Of course not.”

“Hey, it was good to see you. I’m gonna go say hi to a few other people. Do you wanna join me?”

Harry shook his head and pointed in the direction he thought he saw the buffet. “I’m gonna grab a drink.”

“Cool. Great to catch up with you.”

Brock leaving did not seem to invite in a rush of people trying to talk to him, and Harry let out a sigh of relief. He was definitely feeling overwhelmed already, which didn’t bode well for the rest of this trip. Harry let out a sigh as he slinked over to a wall after grabbing a drink.

“What am I gonna do, Rita?” Harry asked, pitching his voice quieter than he normally would.

“Pik pika pik,” she said as she patted his cheek.

Harry watched as the final trainers poured into the room and the conference doors were closed.

“Welcome trainers!” A voice announced over the loudspeaker. “Please enjoy the food, drinks, and conversations. We will be pairing up roommates in an hours time and then you can retire to your room. We understand some of you have traveled very far. Please remember tomorrow is a free day and the tournament will begin at nine am sharp on the fifteenth!”

Harry took a deep breath. Only another hour. Maybe he should find someone else he knew, but no, the better idea was to stand by the wall and sulk because he didn’t feel comfortable going out into the crowd and start conversations.

“Yo! Harry Styles!”

Harry looked up to see a man he didn’t know waving as he approached. He had blond tipped hair and was followed by two other men: both brunets, one slightly shorter and the other broader.

“Yes?” Harry asked. He could feel Rita twitching with interest on his shoulder.

“Niall Horan,” the man who had called for him said, holding his hand out. “These are my mates: Liam Payne and Professor Louis Tomlinson, who is particularly interested in meeting you.”

Harry’s eyes went wide as they landed on Professor Louis Tomlinson. He knew _Professor Louis Tomlinson_ , and he had not expected him to be so young, or look as handsome as he did, standing there in casual clothes. “The Professor Tomlinson? You wrote the paper on the theory of perfecting pokemon abilities.”

He watched as Louis’ face changed from embarrassed to confused. “You’ve read my research?”

“Yes!” Harry couldn’t believe it. He’d been given Louis’ research by Professor Elm in New Bark Town a few years ago when he’d expressed thinking about expanding his farm through breeding. He hadn’t thought much of it originally but there was something about the way Louis passionately argued for the betterment and growth of pokemon that had him hooked. He’d kept a close eye on his research since, interested in what he had to say. “Professor Elm told me last year that you were starting field testing on bug pokemon for perfect abilities.”

Louis nodded. “I completed that, yes. I’ve moved onto replicating it in mammal pokemon now.”

“How is that going? If I can ask, of course. I’d understand if you don’t feel comfortable sharing your findings yet. Or maybe there aren’t any findings to be found yet! I suppose that’s an option too.”

Louis laughed with his whole body. “No, it’s okay. I don’t mind talking about it. According to my family that’s all I do, talk about my research. The bug breeding was a success, and it looks like the mammal breeding is just as much of a success, if not a little slower.”

Harry nodded. “Bug types tend to evolve quicker so it would make sense that their genetic coding might manipulate faster too.”

“That’s my hypothesis too. After the tournament I’ll be going back to work.”

Right. The tournament. That’s why Louis was here. He hadn’t known Louis was an accomplished pokemon trainer as well. “I didn’t know you were a trainer too.”

“I am. I was the youngest Kalos champion at sixteen. Not as nearly young as you were, but I got there in the end.” Louis’ eyes were crinkled in the corner from the strength of his smile.

They fell into conversation so easily that Harry forgot about his nerves. He could barely take his eyes off of Louis, enraptured by how he spoke and carried himself. He was clearly a man of confidence when he got talking about a topic he knew a lot about, on top of truly enjoying what he was talking about. The room had fallen into a spotlight of Louis, all of Harry’s focus on him. Louis spoke so passionately about his research, and how he’d been terrified when the first generation of Bunnelby he’d produced did not perform as well as the Scatterbugs.

“I thought I’d fucked it all up, if I’m completely honest. Made the assumption that the Scatterbug research could be applied to other pokemon and not just be because I was using Scatterbugs.”

“That makes perfect sense though! Being afraid you’d made the wrong assumption I mean. Or at least _I_ think it does. I know I’m not a scientist or anything but-”

“You’re fine, really,” Louis said, putting a hand on his forearm. “It all worked out in the end after all.”

“How are you testing the pokemon’s abilities?”

That hadn’t been Harry. He turned to see the other men Louis had been with still standing there: Niall and Liam. Right. Yes. 

The world pulled back from just the two of them and Harry couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

“In my lab I run a whole workup on the pokemon’s blood. I have scores of one to thirty-one that I’m looking at to judge where the pokemon’s abilities fall,” Louis said, looking at Liam, who had asked the question. Harry wasn’t sure if he was being hopeful in thinking that Louis looked annoyed their conversation had been interrupted.

“That’s cool. Would you be able to test any pokemon here? Or do you need your lab?”

“I have a portable kit for field testing but I don’t think it’s quite as accurate.” Louis looked at Harry, and then his eyes fell to Harry shoulder, where Rita was. “I could do a test on Rita if neither of you mind?”

“Pika?” Rita asked, and Harry looked at her to see how she was feeling.

“What would you have to do exactly?”

Louis bent down to open his duffle bag and after fishing around he pulled out some sort of electronic reader. “I’d just need a small prick of blood. It’ll take about five minutes to run through the reader but it should give me her readings.”

“Are you okay with that, Rita?” Harry asked as she jumped off his shoulder and into his arms. She held out a paw for Louis and Harry blinked. “I guess that answered that.”

Louis laughed a little in surprise before he began fiddling with his reader. He took Rita’s paw in his hand after he managed to open some compartment and he looked at her seriously in the eyes. “This will probably sting but it should be over quick, okay?”

Harry tried not to swoon.

Rita let out a sharp cry of pain that had Harry instinctively cuddle her closer but Louis had already retracted his reader.

“Really sorry about that. My machines back home don’t hurt when we take blood samples but this portable one is a bit crude.” He put the reader in his pocket and reached out to rub Rita’s head in apology. “Thanks for being such a good patient. Do you like Poke Puffs? Think I got one in my bag.” Rita sniffed the air and then climbed from Harry’s arms onto Louis’ shoulder. Louis laughed again and pet her head. He looked over at Harry. “I’ll take that as a yes then.”

Niall let out a whistle and Harry looked at him. “What?”

“Just surprised how quick your Pikachu took to someone new. Guess Louis must be kinda special, huh?” Niall nudged him with his elbow while waggling his eyebrows.

Harry looked at Louis bent down over his bag feeding Rita a Poke Puff. “He’s amazing.”

“May we have your attention please!” A voice came over the loudspeakers. “Rooms have been assigned for the duration of the tournament. Kindly please see assignments on any of the screens posted on the wall. Room keys may be picked up at the front desk of the lobby. Thank you and have a wonderful evening.”

Harry looked at the wall they were standing in front of and yes there was a screen right beside where they were standing. Rita jumped back on his shoulder from Louis’ arms as other people began to come over and look at the screens. Niall siddled away from them as Louis was packing up his bag to join the trainers looking at the screens.

Harry tried to sneak a glance but he was too far away to see anything. Rita made a questioning noise from his shoulder, asking if she should go look for his pairing but he shook his head. He could find out after the rush. Louis standing up caught his attention and Harry looked over at him instead.

“Wonder if we’ll be paired up with people from our regions,” Liam said, standing on his tiptoes to see around people.

Niall gave a thumbs up and it took Harry a moment to realize he was giving it to them. Liam and Louis both returned it as Niall made his way the few steps back to them, smiling and hugging a couple people as he did.

“Liam you’re with Brock from Pewter Town, I’m rooming with Wulfric from Snowbelle City, and Harry and Louis you guys are together.”

“Wait really?” Harry asked at the same time Louis said, “Wulfric’s a good guy.” Harry’s head snapped over to him because _that’s_ what Louis decided to focus on? Not the fact they were rooming together?

“Pikaaaa,” Rita said as she jumped from Harry’s shoulder back onto Louis’ now that she realized they were staying together. Louis reached up and rubbed her head.

“Yeah it looks like you’ll get to stay with me a bit longer,” Louis said to Rita and Harry felt his heart tug at the sight. 

Niall had definitely been onto something when he mentioned how quickly Rita took to Louis. Too bad there was no chance Louis could like him in return. He was an amazing scholar and Harry was just an overgrown kid who lived with too many pokemon and never interacted with people. 

Louis yawned. “If it’s all the same to you, Harry, I think I’m gonna get that key and head up to our room.”

“I’ll go with you!” Harry said, probably too quickly if the way Liam looked at him meant anything. Rita quirked her head as well. “It was a long ride.”

“Tell me about it,” Louis said around another yawn. “You two staying down here?” He directed the question to Liam and Niall.

“Yeah, I should probably find this Wulfric guy.”

“You can’t miss him,” Louis said, “big and broad with this beard that’s kinda split into two pieces.”

“Wait,” Liam said. “What about the test results?”

Louis blinked at him but then he seemed to remember the test he had in his pocket. “Oh, it should be done processing. I guess if we go out into the lobby it’ll be less crowded?”

Harry was more than happy to follow Louis out into the lobby. He was interested in seeing what the tests showed about Rita. Louis pulled out the reader and scanned it over, a smile pulling on his lips.

“Wow. Well no wonder you’re so famous, you have outstanding potential overall and with the training Harry no doubt gives you of course you’re incredible,” Louis said looking at Rita on his shoulder. 

She was peering at the reader. “Pika pika?”

“Oh, um,” Louis looked up at Harry. “So these numbers probably won’t mean as much to you but like I said it’s from one to thirty-one. Rita’s speed, abilities, and strength are perfect at thirty-one. Her constitution is the only weaker one. It’s a twenty-four which is still very good in that regard. You’re definitely the strongest pokemon I’ve ever tested. Now I’m kind of interested where my own pokemon fall.”

“Me too,” Liam said. “I’d love to know. Could you test my whole team?”

Harry watched as Louis yawned again and he couldn’t help but step in. “We have two whole weeks so I’m sure he’ll be able to look over your pokemon. We should probably get up to our room though.”

Liam looked ready to argue but he seemed to think better of it. “Sure. How about we meet for breakfast tomorrow?”

“Sounds good to me,” Niall said, and Harry could only follow Louis’ agreement.

Somehow he’d gone from being a wallflower to having breakfast plans. Harry couldn’t believe it.

***

Louis was a bit of a control freak - just a tiny bit - so he made sure he had the key and was ahead of Harry so he could look inside their room first. Harry didn’t seem to mind at all, and wasn’t that something. This legendary trainer, someone Louis had looked up to since he was teenager, was such a nice, easy going guy, with quite possibly the strongest pokemon Louis had ever encountered.

Well that probably wasn’t true, he was sure his Xerneas and Yveltal were just as strong, if not stronger, since they were legendaries, but just a normal run of the mill pokemon. Louis had worked hard to breed out three perfect statuses in his Scatterbugs, but here Harry-fucking-Styles came with an almost perfect Pikachu.

Louis was kind of really in love.

He was even more in love with their room, when he turned on the light. He’d been expecting a normal hotel room, with a small walkway into a bedroom that had two double beds, and a bathroom and toilet off to one side. But instead he walked into a legitimate suite. There was a small living room and kitchenette and he stopped right in his tracks.

“Wow,” Harry said from behind him.

Louis felt the weight of Rita leave his shoulder as she jumped down to the ground to explore. It hit him just how more room they had than he was originally anticipating. Their beds were even in a different room entirely and he was pretty sure the door on the far side of the room led out to a balcony.

“Hey, Harry, what’s your thoughts on free range pokemon?” Louis asked as he watched Rita sniff around and head onto the tile of the small kitchen.

He was met with silence and he looked over at where Harry was putting his own backpack down and giving Louis a strange look. “Uh, did you miss Rita? I live on a farm. My pokemon are always out.”

“Oh. Yeah. So you wouldn’t mind if I let out some of my pokemon? I’m pretty sure Xerneas, Ptera and Eel are too big, though they may be okay to fly around outside?” Louis was already pulling his Poke Balls off his belt and opening them, letting his team out. Once he finished he turned and introduced them one by one to Harry. “So the Delphox is Foxy, Puff Ball is the Altaria,” Louis said pointing to them as Foxy floated over to Rita standing on the kitchen island and leaned down so they were face to face with each other. “The Gardevoir is Patsy, the Gengar is Casper, and my lovely Sylveon is Eve,” he said as he watched Eve immediately trot over to Harry and demand pets.

“You mentioned two more besides Xerneas?” Harry asked as he greeted Eve with a scritch on the head.

“Ptera and Eel. Ptera is my Aerodactyl and Eel is my Dragonite.”

“Yeah the room is probably a bit too small for them,” Harry said. He then began to let out his own team. “This is Mio,” he said as he let out a Persian who stretched and then immediately bounded over to the couch. “Chance,” and out came a Blissey. “This is Kitsune,” he said as he let out a Ninetails, who followed Persian. “Sandy,” was a Garchomp. “And last but not least, Eve,” Harry said with a smile as he let out an Umbreon.

[ ](https://78.media.tumblr.com/99e6ff417791f4d9105262228dd9e115/tumblr_p8xb35C1zY1qhgtd3o1_1280.jpg)

Louis laughed. “You named your Eevee, Eve too?”

Harry nodded and Louis could tell he was just as delighted as Louis. “Had him since I was a kid. Back then I didn’t come up with the greatest nicknames.”

“Me too. I caught Eve really early,” Louis said. They had eleven pokemon in their suite living room now and it was getting a little crowded so Louis headed for the door that lead out to the patio. “Wanna come sit out here with me for a bit?”

“Absolutely. I’d love to hear more about your time as a trainer. I feel like I don’t really know that side of you,” Harry said.

“There’s not much to say. I definitely didn’t have as many adventures as you.”

“But you’re the youngest Kalos champion ever? That counts for something,” Harry said as they settled into some seats on the balcony. 

Their hotel room overlooked the water and Louis couldn’t help but let Eel and Ptera out of their balls. He wanted them to have a chance to spread their wings. “Take a couple loops around out here, okay?” He said to them, right as another Dragonite joined them.

Louis looked over at Harry who was putting his own Poke Ball down. “That’s Darcy. Figured she’d have fun joining them.”

Louis watched as Darcy and Eel flitted around each other before taking off towards the water. “They seem like they’ll have fun.” He settled back into his seat. “So tell me about Eve, your Eve I mean. You said you caught him young? Was he one of your first caught pokemon?”

Harry shook his head. “No. And I didn’t catch him exactly. It was my first day in Celadon City and I was just wandering around. I took a break to sit down and I had Rita on my shoulder, like always. This old man sat down next to me and asked me if I was a pokemon trainer. I was all of twelve but I told him yes, and he said his son had recently passed away. He’d been a pokemon trainer, or well a collector, and he had left behind a couple pokemon. The man didn’t want to give them to just anyone, since at the time in Kanto we were still in the midst of Team Rocket and rebuilding. We didn’t really have any pokemon sanctuaries yet and he didn’t know who he could trust, so why not some random kid?” Harry shrugged. “I said sure, since I wasn’t going to tell this old guy no. And that’s how I got Eve. How about you?”

“Nothing nearly as exciting. I caught him outside Cyllage City and he stayed with me ever since. Cyllage was the second stop for me on my journey so he was one of my first.”

“Who was your first pokemon?”

“Well, I got Foxy first, when I turned fourteen. I could have gotten a pokemon earlier but my mom had just had twins when I turned eleven so I stayed home and helped her for a couple more years. But the first pokemon I _caught_ was a Scatterbug. She evolved into this beautiful Vivillon, with dark green wings.”

“Do you still have her?” Harry asked.

Louis shook his head. “After I became champion and went off to university I really shrank down my team. I live in Lumiose City so there’s not a lot of space and a lot of my pokemon were stuck in Poke Balls all the time. I donated a lot of them to some gardens, or to schools. I must have had like...four Pancham just because I stumbled across a horde of them when I was a new trainer and I felt bad knocking them all out.”

Harry threw his head back and laughed. “I know that feeling. I had, well still have, too many Caterpies and Weedles.”

“From back in your trainer days?”

“No! They all evolved, but even now. I don’t go around catching pokemon anymore but for some reason I always end up with Caterpies and Weedles.”

“Were one of them your first pokemon?” Louis asked, and he frowned as he watched Harry shut down a little, frowning.

“Uh, no. My first pokemon was Pidge.”

“A Pidgey?” Louis figured it wasn’t that bad of a guess.

Harry nodded. “He’s a Pidgeot now, but yeah.”

“Is he still a member of your team? I know you flew in on Lugia-”

“No.” Harry’s voice was hard, and the one word dropped silence over them.

Louis didn’t know what to say and he had a horrifying moment where he realized maybe - maybe Harry’s Pidgeot was dead. The average avian pokemon had a life expectancy of thirty-five years but that didn’t mean accidents didn’t occur. But no, Harry had spoken of his Pidgeot in present tense.

Louis looked out onto the water. He could see Eel and Darcy chasing each other in the distance. Ptera was probably not to far away either. He sighed. “What happened, if I can ask?”

Harry didn’t speak for a while longer, but soon he let out a sigh and Louis looked over just in time to see him rubbing his eyes. “A couple years ago, one of the last times I actually went out looking for pokemon, we crashed. Me and Pidge. He broke both his wings and he hasn’t been able to fly since. He can do very short hop jumps, and that’s about it.”

“Fuck, that’s insane. Were you okay?”

It took Harry another moment to collect himself and Louis wondered if it was a side effect of living alone on a farm. None of the stories he’d read about Harry Styles the trainer talked about any friends. Louis wondered if he wasn’t used to _people_ asking him if he’s okay.

“I was hurt as well. A couple broken bones, but I was more concerned about Pidge. It wasn’t something a potion could heal you know? Me and Chance are working really hard with him even now. I hope one day he’ll be able to fly again.”

Louis frowned. “You know it wasn’t your fault, right? Whatever happened.”

“It was though,” Harry said. “I was looking for some rare pokemon and I was so focused on the tide coming in and where we’d land if that happened that I completely missed the oncoming storm. And I didn’t have Rita with me, which was my call. I left her back at camp. I thought I’d be fine just with Pidge. And that was _stupid_.”

“I don’t think it was stupid. You made a decision you’d probably made hundreds of times before. You had no way of knowing what the weather was going to be like.”

“I could have though,” Harry said. His voice was hushed and harsh. 

Louis could tell he was simmering with anger, probably at himself. The fact that he was still beating himself up over this years later said a lot about him, but Louis also knew it wasn’t healthy. He reached out and put his hand on Harry’s wrist. It got his attention and Harry looked up at him, frustrated tears in his eyes. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re both alive, and you’re healing.”

Harry shook his head. “I’m meant to protect my pokemon.”

“I know,” Louis said. He tugged gently on Harry’s wrist, trying to urge him to shift over so he could give him a half hug.

“That’s our _job_ as trainers. Pokemon put so much trust in us, they expect us to keep them safe.” Harry was beginning to full on sob and Louis rubbed his back. It was becoming very obvious to him that Harry had never properly spoken to anyone about this, and this cry was probably insanely overdue.

“I know,” he said again. “And you’ve done a great job.”

Harry let out another wet sob. “I must seem so crazy. We’ve only just met and I’m sitting here dumping all of this in your lap.” He pulled away from Louis so he could sit properly in his chair.

“It’s okay.” He wanted to pull Harry back to him, but they weren’t that close yet. He’d give Harry the space he needed to collect himself.

“You don’t have any heartbreaking moments you need to get a cry out about, do you?”

Louis didn’t really have anything like Harry had. He never got to travel the same way Harry did. He stuck to the normal routes in Kalos and never ventured outside. He hadn’t been afforded the luxury, what with school and his family. His one trauma was with Team Flare and Lysandre and well- he’d come to terms with that. “Not really. Any trauma I went through I talked to my mom about, and it helped me get over it.”

Harry laughed then as he rubbed his eyes. “Yeah I uh, if you can’t tell, don’t talk about this a lot. Not that my own mom isn’t great or anything but she was never a pokemon trainer. It had been a dream of hers but,” he shrugged, “shit came up you know? She was super supportive but she never got it.” He let out a big breath. “Okay. Happy topic.” His smile was obviously fake as he tried to power through everything. “Best moment as a trainer?”

Louis looked Harry up and down, trying to decide if he should steer the conversation back or let the moment pass. He could see the pleading in Harry’s eyes so finally Louis relented with a nod. “Best moment as a trainer? I suppose I can’t cop it with just winning the league? I think it was when Eve evolved. Knowing that he would only evolve when he completely loved and trusted me?”

“Yeah, that’s a great moment isn’t it? Seeing the physical representation of a pokemon’s love for you,” Harry said.

“There’s nothing better,” Louis agreed.

***

Harry only felt vaguely embarrassed over crying in front of Louis. But Louis was absolutely lovely, so of course he just rolled with it. He let Harry close the discussion and move onto lighter topics of conversation. He talked animatedly about his research and his family. He even let Harry see a little vulnerability, no doubt in response to Harry being so open with him, when he admitted he was a bit of a workaholic, and so he didn’t get to see his family as much as he wished.

Darcy, Eel, and Ptera returned when the moon was high in the sky, and he and Louis finally checked the time. They’d been speaking to each other for almost four hours and it was nearing midnight. Harry was surprised none of their pokemon had come looking for them, especially Rita. When they walked back inside he got his answer as to why: all the pokemon except for Foxy and Casper were sound asleep. Mio and Kitsune on the couch where he had left him, both Eves on the floor right next to the couch. Rita was curled up in Kitsune’s tails. Patsy was sitting in a chair at the kitchen island and resting her head on the table. Everyone else was asleep somewhere on the floor.

Louis stopped in his tracks and then turned to look at Casper. “Did you put them all to sleep? What have we talked about?” Harry didn’t think Casper looked particularly sorry. Foxy made a combination of sounds and Louis’ face softened. “Oh. Okay then.” He looked at Harry. “Foxy asked Casper to put them to sleep so you could get a moment to cry everything out. Otherwise Rita would have been outside in a second.”

Harry smiled at Foxy. “Thank you. You clearly take after Louis.”

She trilled at him and Harry wasn’t sure what she’d said but he could tell it was positive.

“Come on,” Louis said, “let’s head to bed. It’s late and we did promise Liam and Niall we’d meet them for breakfast.”

They both headed for the bedroom, where there were two double beds. Louis headed into the washroom first. Harry took the time to change into some sleeping shorts. He usually slept in the nude but he’d known he would be sharing a room with another trainer so he’d packed some extra clothes. He peeked back out into the living room to make sure all of his pokemon were still asleep. He’d check with Louis if it was okay to keep the door open. Rita usually slept in his room and when she woke up she’d want to come check on him.

The washroom door opened and Louis emerged. “All yours.”

Harry nodded in thanks. It didn’t take him long to clean up but by the time he got back Louis had claimed a bed and was looking over something on his tablet. He looked up at Harry, reading glasses perched on his face - a new addition -, and Harry stopped in his tracks. It hit him then, Louis was _breathtaking_.

“Sorry just checking my emails. I have Professor Sycamore keeping tabs on my research so I asked for updates.” He clicked off his tablet and put it on the bedside table along with his glasses. “I also left the door open, if you didn’t mind.”

“I don’t. I was actually going to ask if we could, for Rita, among everyone else.” Harry got in his own bed and shut off the light. The room fell into a soft blue light from the moon outside. All he could hear was the soft snores of their pokemon outside. “Night, Louis.”

“Night, Harry.”

Harry shifted in his bed, trying to get used to the bed. It was definitely comfortable but it wasn’t _his_. The room wasn’t his. The noises weren’t his. So it would probably take him a few more minutes to get used to everything. There was also the fact that Louis was right there next to him, one bed over, falling asleep as well. Harry hadn’t shared a room with someone in many years. Not since he stayed at a hostel when he was a teenager.

He huffed and rolled over onto his back.

The air felt different here. There were too many weird noises. The light was wrong.

_**Crash** _

Harry shot up. “What was that?”

Louis was sitting up as well, eyes glued to the open door where he had his hand held up. Harry’s eyes could see Casper’s red eyes glowing in the dark. Louis’ hand closed into a fist and Casper’s eyes moved closer as he floated into the room. Harry clenched his hands around the blanket as there was another sound, coming from his left. He could hear soft meowing, two distinct sounds. It was coming from the closet.

Casper floated by the bed and Harry watched as he shifted his visibility, becoming almost nothing but his outline as he phased through the closet door. Harry’s heart was pounding, unsure what could be waiting there. It was probably just some lost pokemon, but wild pokemon could be dangerous. Harry waited as there was what sounded like a small struggle and then the closet door fell open, high pitched shrieks of panic becoming louder.

Light flooded the room and Harry had to cover his eyes. Louis must have turned on the light. Harry blinked a few times to get used to it and when his eyes adjusted Louis was standing besides Casper, reaching out for the two pokemon Casper was holding.

Harry didn’t recognize either of them. They were the same pokemon though: a translucent dark blue orb with a starscape pattern set inside a solid golden shell structure. The pokemon were small, not even a foot tall and maybe a foot wide. Louis grunted as he took both of them, and Harry could see they were trembling.

“Heavy fuckers,” Louis said. “I have no clue who these are, do you?”

Harry shook his head, reaching for his pokedex to try and identify them. If they were only native in Alola though he wouldn’t be able to register the pokemon. So he wasn’t too surprised when the pokedex read that it couldn’t find the pokemon. He closed his pokedex and held out his hands. “Lemme see one.”

Louis handed over the pokemon and Harry sat down on the edge of his bed as he cradled the pokemon in his lap. Louis hadn’t been kidding when he said they were heavy. This close he could see that the inside the dark blue orb was a black face with pink and blue markings. He could also make out that the stars seemed to make an ‘E’ shape pattern if they were connected. He cooed at the pokemon, like he always did with scared ones.

“It’s okay. What were you doing in there?” The pokemon in his lap mewed it’s high pitched tone. Harry tried to pick out what sound it was really making so he could hopefully place a name, but he couldn’t tell. He looked at Louis who was petting his own pokemon and whispering to it. “Finding out anything?”

Louis shook his head. “Nothing.” He looked over at Casper. “Cas doesn’t know anything else.”

“Tomorrow we should update our pokedexes so we can at least identify them. I wonder how they got in here.”

“Me too. Will you be alright to stay here? You won’t run off?” Louis asked the pokemon in his arms. It mewed at him and Harry thought it sounded like an affirmative. Louis was nodding as he let the pokemon go and Harry watched it float over to Louis’ empty bed. “Oh, you want to sleep in my bed too? Okay then, I guess I can make room for something as small as you.” Louis climbed back in bed and he got himself comfortable. He looked at Harry as he reached for the light. “You gonna be okay to try and sleep?”

Harry yawned, and it wasn’t like he had much of a choice so he nodded. His own pokemon was trying to cuddle close to him and it was a little uncomfortable. That shell was not soft, in fact it felt like metal. Harry shifted just a little away from the pokemon, and eventually fell into an fitful rest.


	3. Chapter 3

It took Harry a couple minutes to remember what had happened the night before when he woke up. Rita woke him up by sitting on his chest and poking him in the cheek over and over again. It was the first time he’d slept in past dawn since he started his farm and his body was confused by the sun streaming into the room.

“Pika pika pikachu,” Rita said, tapping his nose.

“I’m up, I’m up,” Harry said, looking around. The pokemon from the night before wasn’t in bed with him, and when he looked to his right he saw that Louis wasn’t in his bed either.

“Pikachu pik pik.”

“Yeah, yeah, hold on.” Harry got out of bed and stumbled into the living room where finally he saw Louis surrounded by all of the pokemon they’d left out the night before. Including the two mystery pokemon who were floating right beside his head. One of them turned and saw him and let out a sound before it zoomed up to him. Harry just barely caught the pokemon before it knocked him off his feet. “Good morning to you too.”

“I almost have all of them fed,” Louis said, leaning back to look at Harry with a smile. “And then I figure we’ll Poke Ball them up and head down for our own breakfast?”

“Sounds good to me. Would you be willing to get into a Poke Ball for me?” Harry asked the pokemon in his arms. “Don’t want you running off, after all.” The pokemon pulled back and began vibrating. Harry looked at Rita, who shrugged, and then back at the pokemon. “Okay if you don’t like the Poke Ball it’s okay. You can stay here-” The pokemon flew back into his arms and Harry frowned. He looked at Louis who watching them.

“I...suppose we could take them with us? Might be a good idea anyway. We should probably let the resort staff know there are some wild pokemon in the rooms.”

Harry nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. You can come with Louis and me then.”

“Wait, what?” Louis asked, and Harry looked to see Foxy was tugging on Louis’ arm and shaking her head. “We can’t let people know about them? Why not?”

Harry watched the exchange, not entirely sure what Foxy was telling Louis. He rarely got to see that connection between trainer and pokemon from the outside, even though he knew he had it with his own pokemon. Louis finally nodded after a brief debate that ended with his own mystery pokemon in his arms.

“What did she say?”

“Not much,” Louis said. “She just gets flashes of the future based on different actions and she says that the best course of action is to keep these two hidden. Which is honestly more than she normally tells me. I fell into a trap in a forest once because she didn’t want to tell me about it since _apparently_ that was messing with the future or something.”

“She didn’t happen to tell you their names, did she?”

Louis gave him a look. “We’re lucky to know we should hide them. Which by the way, not something that is making me feeling very positive right now.”

Harry happened to agree. He looked at the pokemon in his arms and couldn’t help but feel that knot of dread he got when he was younger and facing Team Rocket.

Louis finished feeding all the pokemon and the two of them went about putting everyone back in their Poke Balls. Louis left his Eve out with an aside comment that if Rita could be out so could one of his pokemon, and Eve was small enough to follow them around without drawing too much attention to them. Harry went back into their bedroom, grabbed his duffle bag, and emptied everything on to his bed. He figured it would be big enough to carry both of the pokemon around with him.

It took a little coaxing but he managed to get both of them to go into the bag after explaining that it was the only way they could come with Harry and Louis. They seemed to be on the more intelligent side which meant it wasn’t as hard as it could have been. 

The bag was heavy as hell though.

“I _can_ take it if you want,” Louis said as they took the elevator down to the lobby level. 

Harry shifted the bag a little so the weight was distributed better and shook his head. “Nah I got it. So breakfast first or should we update our pokedexes first?”

“Pokedexes I think. I have a feeling Niall is the type who will keep us for a long while, you know?”

Harry laughed as the elevator door dinged open. They greeted a couple other trainers they knew as they passed them, making their way to the front desk.

A smiling woman greeted them. “Alola! How may I be of services?” Rita jumped onto the counter from where she’d been riding on Louis’ shoulder, and the woman blinked for a moment, before turning her smile back to them.

“We’d like to upgrade our pokedexes. Neither of us have been to Alola before and we couldn’t identify some of the pokemon we’ve encountered,” Louis said.

“Of course. Professor Kukui has given us the Kalos update so if you hand over your pokedexes I can install it for both of you. It should only take a few minutes.”

Louis handed over both of their pokedexes and he smiled at Harry. “How you holding up?” The pokemon had been relatively stationary in his bag, making the weight more bearable but they seemed to react to Louis’ question and Harry winced as the shoulder strap dug into his flesh. “There’s a chair over there, why don’t you go sit in it while I wait for these to update?”

Harry spotted the chair and he nodded, heading over to it. He sat down and put the bag on the ground, right next to Eve who curled up at his feet. Harry scratched his head right behind the bow on top of his head.

“Oh my god, Harry!”

He looked up as a woman with pale skin and pink hair came jogging up to him.

“Whitney, hello.” He wasn’t surprised she was here, she’d been in charge of the Pokemon Gym in Goldenrod City for over a decade now. He also wasn’t surprised when the first thing she did was kneel down in front of Eve.

“Your Sylveon is so cute! Can I pet him?”

Harry looked at Eve. “I think he wouldn’t mind. He’s not mine. He’s Louis’ actually. Louis, from Kalos.” He felt silly pointing towards Louis when Whitney was focused so intensely on Eve.

“You’re so precious. I always mean to get an Eevee and evolve it but I’m too busy.” Whitney said as she stroked Eve’s ribbons. “You still have your Pikachu, right?”

“Rita’s over with Louis.”

Whitney nodded. “It’s nice that you’re sharing pokemon. How long have you been together?”

Harry frowned. “We just met yesterday, actually. He’s my roommate.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I just thought since you said your Pikachu was with him and you had his Sylveon that you must be pretty serious. I know I wouldn’t trust just anyone with Miltank, especially cause she’s so picky with who she likes. It took her over a year to get used to Jasmine and that was when we were having a date once a week.”

“I didn’t know you two were dating,” Harry said.

Whitney laughed as she stood up. “I’d imagine you don’t get a lot of gossip up there on your farm. You really need to come to those Pokemon League meetings we have. You end up missing everything.”

“I heard Lance and Clair finally started talking to each other again.” It was the only piece of gossip he had to trade on and he only heard it from a worker in Blackthorn City’s mart when he’d stopped there a few years ago.

Whitney snorted. “Old news. They’re fighting again. The official story is Lance offended her but _I_ heard they were fighting because they both slept with Falkner and he ended up dragging both of them along for _months_ before anyone found out.”

“You know stuff like that just makes me want to not be involved in the drama.”

“But why?” Whitney asked. “It’s hilarious. And this is the first time the three of them have been in the same place since it all went down so a bunch of us are putting bets down on how long it takes before it implodes.”

“When what implodes?” Louis stopped at Harry’s shoulder and handed him his pokedex. “Hello, I’m Louis.”

Whitney gave Harry a look before reaching out her hand. “Whitney! And just some relationship gossip.”

“Between gym leaders? I have to say keeping up with that is one of the only reasons I remember to go to the Kalos league meetings.”

Whitney clapped her hands together in delight. “See Harry, it’s not just me. _Everyone_ loves relationship drama.”

“What’s this Harold? You don’t enjoy a little gossip?” Louis asked, smiling at him.

“I don’t mind it, I just can’t keep up with it since I live on a farm up in a mountain.”

“Well that would do it,” Louis said. “Now if you’ll excuse us Whitney, but we haven’t had breakfast yet so we should probably get to that.”

“Of course. I’m heading down to the beach where a few of us are gonna be training. You guys should come join us! We’ll probably be taking a break to play in the ocean.”

They said their goodbyes and it wasn’t until Whitney was out of sight that Louis grabbed Harry’s arm and pulled him up. “Come on, I think we’ll be able to read the pokedex out on the terrace.”

True to Louis’ observations there wasn’t anyone on the terrace and so they were able to open the bag and Louis held up his pokedex so it could scan and read the pokemon’s name. The pokedex beeped and information came up just as the mechanical voice of the pokedex read off a summary of the pokemon.

“Cosmoem. Evolved from Cosmog. There’s something accumulating around the black core in it’s hard shell. People think this Pokemon may come from another world.”

The screen flashed an image of Cosmoem and gave its’ vital information, but otherwise was incomplete. The information that was supposed to filled with what area it was from flashed as _unknown_. Harry’s stomach sunk. Pokemon only showed up as _unknown_ in the pokedex when they weren’t properly discovered. The pokedex AI was smart enough to recognize regional legendary pokemon but their data was incomplete because of the lack of human knowledge. This is where it was important for pokemon trainers to find and study legendaries to try and fill in the gaps of knowledge.

Louis snapped the pokedex closed and then zipped up the bag. Harry could see how pinched his face was after hearing that description. “It’s always gotta be otherworldly shit, doesn’t it?” He said otherworldly, but Harry heard it. _Legendary_.

Harry frowned as he resisted the urge to look back in his bag. “How’d they get here then? If they’re from another world?”

“No clue, but I’m sure it’s fine right? Two otherworldly pokemon showing up?”

“Pika pik,” Rita said from Louis’ shoulder and Harry hushed her.

“He was being sarcastic.”

“Harry’s not normally sarcastic is he?” Louis asked Rita who shook her head. “You’ll get used to me.”

Harry really hoped they would.

***

This was not good. There was no way this was good.

That was the only thing running through Louis’ mind throughout the entirety of breakfast. Niall and Liam had both still been in the restaurant by the time Harry and he had arrived, the Cosmoem safe in Harry’s bag. He only began to relax halfway through breakfast, when Niall had thrown a spoonful of cereal at his face and started a small food fight around their table.

The worry was still there, though, every time his eyes landed on Harry’s duffle bag. Eve and Rita were standing guard of the bag, no doubt picking up on how important it was to keep the pokemon safe. Legendary pokemon weren’t the type to hide around in hotel closets. And in Louis’ experience they always had someone chasing after them. This is probably what Foxy had seen in her future: people looking for the Cosmoem. There was little doubt the people looking for them were the good guys.

They never were.

Harry shot him a tired smile from across the table. He looked ready to go back to sleep. Louis wondered if he’d gotten much sleep the night before. He kicked his foot out gently under the table and rubbed it against Harry’s shin.

“You want to head back to the room?” He asked.

“That sounds great,” Harry said.

“Back to your room? Really?” Liam asked. “We’re in paradise! You should come to the beach with us! Play in the water.”

“Nah, we didn’t sleep that well last night,” Louis said. “A nap might be what we both need.”

“This is our one day off, though.”

“Bet they’re both off training. You know I read about you last night, Louis,” Niall said with a wink. “You were an ambitious champion. Rumor has it you even filled out the pokedex in Kalos.”

Louis snorted. “Wulfric likes to talk some shit. But yes, I have caught every pokemon in Kalos.”

“Really?” Harry asked. “You didn’t mention that last night.”

“We never got around to asking each other that question.” Louis pushed his seat back and stood up. “Now before you all start fanning me, I do think a nap will be just what me and little Harry need. We’ll see you guys in the afternoon.” Harry followed him, grabbing his duffle bag. Rita jumped onto his shoulder and then over to Louis’ and Louis reached up and scratched the top of her head. “Like riding with me?”

“Pikachu,” Rita said.

“I don’t mind it either.”

They waved goodbye to Niall and Liam and headed out of the restaurant.

“Thanks for that,” Harry said. “I think I just want to be in our room so we can talk about this.” He didn’t need to look at his bag for Louis to know the Cosmoem were what he wanted to talk about. 

Louis opened his mouth to answer as they headed towards the elevator and then paused as he spotted someone he knew coming towards him. “Wicke, is that you?”

Wicke was a vivacious and bright woman with larger than life purple hair and glasses. She waved at him as she stopped in front of him and Harry. “Professor Tomlinson! It’s great to see you here!”

“You too,” Louis said. He gestured to Harry. “This is Harry. Harry, this is Wicke, she works for the Aether Foundation here in Alola.”

“Hello! The Aether Foundation will be working with the pokecenters during the tournament to make sure everyone’s pokemon are in tip-top shape,” she said. Her eyes floated down to Eve and then up to Rita. “I can see your pokemon already look in good shape. Your Pikachu especially is so cute.”

“Pika!” Louis could feel her preening on his shoulder from the compliment.

“Thanks. She’s Harry’s, she’s just taken an interest in riding with me.”

Wicke nodded excitedly. “I’m actually really glad you’re here because I wanted to talk to you about some work the Aether Foundation is doing in relation to your latest research.”

“Sure, yeah, absolutely,” Louis said.

He didn’t hear Eve growling right away. It was something that grew louder as Wicke continued talking and Louis only fully connected it when Harry jostled against him. 

“What’s the matter?” Harry’s voice was quiet, trying not to interrupt Louis and Wicke’s conversation. “Louis, I think I’m gonna take him outside.”

Louis nodded, frowning in concern as Rita jumped from his shoulder Harry’s, and then back to the ground as she seemed to think better of leaving Louis alone. Louis didn’t mind the company as Wicke grabbed his attention again.

“Lusamine will be here later during the tournament. There’s just something at the lab holding her up right now,” she said. “I’m positive she’d want to talk to you about your research, and also all the pokemon you’ll have left over after you finish with your breeding. We wouldn’t want them to go to waste.”

Louis remembered Lusamine, the president of the Aether Foundation. He wasn’t sure he’d ever met someone who loved pokemon quite as much as her. “That would be great. I end up putting a lot of them up for adoption or onto farms but if the Aether Foundation has some program where they can be paired with trainers or people who will love them that would be perfect.”

Wicke nodded. “Exactly.” They spoke for a couple more minutes before Wicke bid him farewell.

Louis waited until she was gone before he went looking for Harry. He found him sitting outside on a bench on the side of the hotel with the help of Rita.

“Hey there,” Louis said taking the seat next to Harry. “Do we know what’s going on?” He pet Eve, hoping to calm him down. “What’s bothering you, buddy?”

Harry shook his head. “I couldn’t get much out of him or the Cosmoem. I _think_ he was growling in response to the woman you were speaking to? Who was she?”

“Wicke? She works for the Aether Foundation. Their whole mission is to protect people. I’ve worked with them before when I was in uni. They rescue pokemon and so some of the pokemon were sent to us to help transfer to new homes after they’ve been healed.” Louis frowned and scratched Eve behind the ears. “Why were you growling? You remember Wicke, right? She’s one of the good guys.” He could see out of the corner of his eye that Harry was frowning. “What?”

Harry shook his head. “It’s nothing. I’m just. Not sure what’s going on. It’s probably nothing.”

“Yeah,” Louis said. “Nothing.”


	4. Chapter 4

The pairings for the first round of the tournament were put up that night. Each region had their own pool of trainers, making up eight different pools. Every trainer would have eight different battles over the next three days to determine who would go onto the next round. They would take the top two trainers from each pool, and two wild cards, and move onto a round of 16.

Louis was scheduled to battle the first and third day while Harry wasn’t scheduled until the second and third day. This meant Harry would be able to watch Louis’ first day of battling and in turn he could watch Harry’s first day.

“You’ve battled everyone you’re up against before right?” Harry asked as they settled into bed that night.

Louis nodded as he checked his emails - not that he was getting any since Professor Sycamore told him he wouldn’t send any updates unless the world was ending. “I had a different team since I didn’t have to battle them all at once like this, but I’m confident enough in my Pokemon. How about you?”

“Pretty much the same. I also built my team to be overall pretty balanced.”

Louis thought that was fair. He understood that some trainers, especially those that ran gyms, got caught up in keeping with a theme, but he’d always taken the balanced approach. “You wanna stop by the mart in the morning to pick up anything? Potions, some heals?” He looked over to see Harry was already in bed and he smiled a little. Harry’s Cosmoem and Rita were both on his bed with him.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

It felt like Louis closed his eyes and when he opened them the next morning he was sitting in the trainer room they had set aside for trainers to wait their turns. He got like that sometimes when he’d been chasing the Pokemon League. It was like everything else was a fog and all he had was each battle. He felt a level of zen he hadn’t felt in awhile as he looked down at his wrist, where his Mega Stone bracelet was. Professor Sycamore and he had spent time building his team around which stones he had available, all of which Professor Sycamore had gifted him except for his original Gengarite. Now there were three stones that set in his bracelet one for Casper, Patsy, and Puff Ball. He could only use a stone once per battle so he needed to pick which one he’d used based on the opponents he’d have.

His first opponent would be Malva, from the Elite Four. Last he remembered she ran a fire team. Eel was the only Pokemon he had that had a water move, and he was an alternate, but Louis was creative, and water wasn’t the only thing that could snuff out fire type moves. Ptera and Sandy both were super effective against fire types while being resistant to the fire itself.

He could see Malva standing in the corner of the room. Her hair was just as pink as he remembered, put up in two pigtails. She caught him looking at her and gave him a smirk. He looked back at his bracelet.

“Louis and Malva report to PokeStage 3!” A voice on the loudspeaker called out.

Louis stood up and Malva fell into step beside him.

“Haven’t seen you in awhile, Professor,” she said.

“I’ve been busy.”

“So you’re saying you aren’t up to snuff?” Her voice was light and teasing but he could tell she was probing for weakness.

“I never said that,” Louis said, giving her his own smirk.

They emerged outside to a larger crowd than Louis had been expecting. Very few battles usually drew many spectators, and definitely not enough to fill a small arena. People must have come from all over to see them, and he knew even more were watching from home.

He took a deep breath as he stepped up onto the raised platform they’d used to have their battle.

Some stages were elaborate, with artificial terrain to give certain types of pokemon a leg up. Louis had encountered it enough during his fight through the Pokemon League: Malva herself battled in an oppressively hot room that could burn grass pokemon. But this was just a simple stage. Even playing grounds.

His hand dropped to his belt where his Poke Balls sat as he waited for the buzzer to sound, signalling the start of the battle. Across the stage Malva stood, looking cool and collected. She definitely wasn’t as terrifying as when he was sixteen and she was against a backdrop of fire.

His mind was running a million miles a minute, flashing over the perfect way to tackle her team. Ptera first, definitely Ptera first. And then Foxy after that. Foxy only know fire and psychic moves but her resistance to fire would be important.

_Buzz_.

It signaled the battle was starting. Louis had no time left to think. He threw his Poke Ball.

“Ptera, let’s go!”

Ptera came out of the Poke Ball with a large swoosh, kicking up the sand that was around the stage with his powerful wings. Louis couldn’t see around him yet to see who Malva had chosen but suddenly he heard an announcer.

“Malva, one of the Elite Four from Kalos, has opened up with her trademark Pyroar, while Louis, the youngest ever Kalos champion, looks to be starting with an Aerodactyl! As we know, Aerodactyls - a rock and flying type - take minimal damage from fire type moves, and their rock type moves can be devastating to fire types. Malva definitely has her work cut out for her.”

Louis had never battled with an announcer before. Sure he’d had spectators, people hanging around to watch as he fought his way to the Elite Four, but this was new, and a little off-kiltering. The announcer was essentially giving away details of his thought process, and that could prove detrimental in later matches.

There was also the crowd, roaring loud. It was enough to make his head pound as he tried to stay focused.

“Ptera! Rock Slide!” He screamed his instructions loud enough so he was sure he’d be heard. Ptera flapped his wings and Louis could see the rocks begin to fall from the sky, sliding right towards Pyroar.

He couldn’t hear Malva’s own orders but he saw Pyroar dodge, getting hit with one, two rocks, before jumping up. Louis shifted so he could get a better look at both pokemon. It would allow him to better made adjustments on the fly.

Pyroar was jumping closer to Ptera, using the rocks from his attack to get up into the air.

“Ptera, use crunch!”

Not even a minute into the fight and he could already feel himself losing his voice. Great. His eyes darted to Malva, standing cooly across the stage, before he went back to the pokemon. The rocks were almost done falling. Pyroar had nowhere to go to dodge Ptera’s attack.

His powerful jaws grabbed Pyroar by the stomach, biting down.

An explosion of electricity show through Ptera.

“Shit!” Louis yelled, covering his face as the electricity shot down the ground, damaging the stage and throwing rock up towards his face.

“Pyroar used Wild Charge! Who knew it was capable of an electric attack! That’s gotta hurt Aerodactyl, who’s weak to electric type moves because of its secondary type, flying!” The announcer said.

Ptera landed heavily on the stage. Louis could see that electric attack had taken a lot out of him.

“You’re okay,” Louis said, mostly to himself. “We got this.”

Ptera looked back at him, snorted, and then shook himself off before turning back to face the Pyroar.

Louis smirked. “That a boy. Ptera! Hyper Beam!”

He watched as Pyroar tried to dodge but Ptera was too quick and the hot white light of the beam engulfed Pyroar. Louis fist pumped the air as Malva pulled back Pyroar to the words of the announcer declaring she’d fainted.

One down.

Malva threw out her next pokemon: Torkoal.

“Malva has brought on her next pokemon. Torkoal is a pure fire type, which is still weak against rock types. This may just be a massacre. What could she have up her sleeve?” The announcer asked.

Louis watched her for a moment, trying to see what her plan was. Did she plan to sacrifice this pokemon for a turn while she healed her Pyroar? Another one of those electric attacks would definitely take out Ptera.

“Rock slide,” he called to Ptera. Torkoals were notoriously slow, since they were just fire turtles, and Louis watched as the attack hit Malva’s Torkoal straight on.

The debris cleared and Torkoal was still standing, just barely.

Louis eyes darted to Malva and he saw her lips move to declare an attack. His eyes widened in horror as the fallen rocks from Ptera’s rock slide came up and encased Ptera, slamming into him.

“Ooh! That’s gotta hurt! It looks like Torkoal just used stone edge to take out Louis’ Aerodactyl! Even though he’s a rock type his flying subset makes him weak to rock moves!”

“Shit,” Louis said as he brought Aerodactyl back into the Poke Ball. He hooked the Poke Ball back onto his belt and grabbed Foxy’s.

This fight was over.

“Foxy!” He called the moment she was out of her Poke Ball with a roar. “Psychic!” 

He spread his legs just a bit further apart so he was grounded for the attack. Foxy held her hand out, pointing right at Torkoal. Cracks formed on his shell as the energy hit him, and Louis took a deep breath to help steady himself as he watched Torkoal fall, damaging itself.

Across the stage Malva had fallen too and Louis watched as she called Torkoal back. He was ready for whatever she had next. All it took was him to register that the next pokemon she had was a Chandelure before he was pulling Foxy back quickly and releasing Casper.

The announcer didn’t even have the chance to finish introducing Casper before Louis had him casting shadow ball, knocking Chandelure out. Louis watched Malva from behind Casper and he could tell now, she was annoyed and flustered. She didn’t have an out. This battle was almost over. He didn’t know how many pokemon she had left and he didn’t care; he had four more waiting in the wings to blast them away.

Malva stared at him for a moment before she released her next pokemon.

“Malva’s final pokemon is Talonflame! Remember, while the limit each trainer is allowed is six some have opted to take a more streamlined team. Malva only brought four pokemon.”

Louis smirked, thankful for the information.

Talonflame took off towards Casper.

“Cas! Use thunderbolt.”

Louis couldn’t see Casper’s face but he knew the pokemon enjoyed the battle as much as him. The bolt of lightning hit Talonflame right in the back, knocking her out of the air.

Malva called her back and the buzzer sounded.

“With that - surprising! - thunderbolt attack from Gengar, Louis has won the battle!”

Louis ran over to Casper and gave him a huge hug, happy that he was corporeal for the time being, instead of letting Louis fall through him like he has sometimes. “We did! You were great! Good job taking out that Chandelure and Talonflame. Bet you’re glad we learned thunderbolt aren’t you?”

Casper rolled his eyes and then looked to his side. Malva stopped right beside them and held out her hand.

“Good battle, Louis.”

Louis shook her hand. “You too. I wasn’t expecting that electric attack from Pyroar.”

“Yeah, that was quite, shocking,” she raised her eyebrows at the joke and Louis laughed. “You surprised me too with your own electric attack.”

“I’ll admit, I remembered you had a Talonflame so when I brought out Casper to handle your Chandelure I knew he’d work for both of them. Just wasn’t sure if you had any other pokemon up your sleeve.”

Her lips tipped up into a smile as Louis heard his name being called.

“Louis!”

He looked over to see Harry running towards him with Rita on his shoulder and Liam right behind them. He waved and was stunned when Harry practically threw himself up the stairs to the stage and into his arms.

“You won! That was incredible!!” Harry said, hugging him tightly. Louis was frozen, but it was okay, because just as quickly Harry had pulled back and was frowning. “Where the fuck was your water attack? I thought you said you had a balanced team!”

“Ah, yeah,” Louis said, feeling sheepish. “Pretty sure only Eel knows a water attack. But hey, I had Ptera as my fire handler! It wasn’t my fault Pyroar knew an electric attack. That would have hit me too if I had a water pokemon.”

“It’s the point of the matter!”

“Guys, not to interrupt, but I think they need to clear the area for the next battle,” Liam said. “Good battle, by the way you two. Seriously.” He was addressing both Louis and Casper.

Louis put Casper back in his Poke Ball and accepted Rita onto his shoulder from Harry’s. “Thanks, Liam. I think I’m gonna have to go back in the pit to wait my turn.”

“Do you need a heal or anything?” Harry asked.

“There’s a pokemon center inside, I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, just checking.” Harry gave him another quick hug. “Good luck! You’re an amazing fighter so I’m sure you’ll be fine but just. Good luck.”

Louis smiled and this time he was able to return the hug. “Thanks.”

Liam gave him a fist bump as he passed him but Louis was too busy floating. He totally had these next three battles.

***

“Louis went four for four! Louis went four for four! Louis went four for four!”

Harry knew it wasn’t the most creative song but he couldn’t help but sing-song it at the top of his lungs as he skipped down the hallway back to their room. Louis had been absolutely incredible. Malva had been his toughest battle of the day, and that was only because his one pokemon with water moves was on his alternate. Patsy’s grass type moves had been used to take down his second competitor - Grant - single handedly. Foxy had demolished Ramos’ grass team. And Casper and Ptera had run riot on Olympia’s psychic based team. It had been amazing to watch how clinical and efficient Louis was.

“Louis went four for four!” He sang one last time as he swung open the door to their room.

“Yes, keep going Harold, I’m not sure people back on the main continents can hear you,” Louis said as he shut the door behind him.

“But Louis! This is a big thing! No one else in your group today went four for four!”

“Niall did,” Louis pointed out.

“In _your_ group! Come on, we should celebrate!” Harry opened the fridge in the hopes of finding something for them to eat. Louis had made breakfast the other day for their pokemon so he’d thought there would be something, but it appeared almost all of the food put in the fridge was for pokemon. “Let’s order room service!”

Rita cheered as Louis just shook his head. He was smiling though so Harry happily went over to the phone to order. The Cosmoem had come out of their bedroom and were happily squeaking and trilling at Louis as Rita spoke to them. Harry could only guess she was bragging to them about Louis’ battles.

The front desk man he spoke to said the food would take about twenty minutes so Harry was surprised when there was a knock on the door only a few minutes later, just as he was settling onto the couch next to Louis.

“I’ll get it,” Louis said, patting Harry’s knee to stay seated.

He opened the door and Harry heard Niall before he saw him.

“Look who it is! One of the only other undefeated fighters from today!” Harry watched as Niall enveloped Louis in a big hug, shaking him from side to side in excitement. “You two coming down to celebrate with us?”

“No, no, we have room service coming up here for our own party.”

“Brilliant!” Niall said, moving the two of them out of the door so Liam could step into the room. “Mind if we join you?”

Louis laughed as he looked over at Harry. “We only ordered enough for us, but if Harry doesn’t mind I suppose it’s fine.”

Harry had been looking forward to spending another night alone with Louis. He loved talking to him. He didn’t think he finally realized he missed talking to people, it was just Louis. Louis made him feel comfortable, and like the life he had lived so far was okay and normal. But Louis was completely lit up at the idea of Niall and Liam being there and so Harry nodded, smiling when Niall grabbed Louis and Liam in a big hug of celebration.

“Get over here, Harry!” Niall said. “Pre-emptive hugs for tomorrow!”

Harry couldn’t help but laugh as he stood up and joined the hug.

The four of them settled into the living room and it was then that Niall and Liam finally spotted the Cosmoem, peeking out from behind the .

“You two went out and already caught some native Alolan pokemon?” Liam asked. “Why didn’t you tell us? I was planning to do that after the competition but if it was a group event I wouldn’t mind.”

“I thought you were a fighting exclusive trainer?” Louis said.

“There are fighting pokemon here in Alola. There’s this one dragon I heard about, Jangmo-o, that becomes a dragon-fighting type and I think it would be great to add to my collection.”

“We didn’t catch these,” Harry said. “We found them in hiding in our closet.”

“Oh shit, did anyone get hurt?” Niall asked. “Did you tell the front desk? Maybe there are more wild pokemon in the hotel?”

“Uh,” Harry shared a look with Louis, wondering what to do. They’d agreed to keep the Cosmoem a secret until they knew what was happening with them but now they were faced with two more people knowing.

Louis raised his eyebrows towards Harry, obviously trying to say something but Harry didn’t know _what_. “No, we didn’t. We don’t think there are other pokemon. Just these two.”

“Why do you think that? And what are they?” Liam asked as he pulled out his pokedex to scan the Cosmoem.

Liam’s pokedex model spoke and so the room filled with the robotic voice reading off Cosmoem’s description.

“Cosmoem. Evolved from Cosmog. There’s something accumulating around the black core in it’s hard shell. People think this Pokemon may come from another world.”

The room fell into silence. Liam and Niall were both staring at the Cosmoem, who had come out fully of hiding.

“Foxy said we shouldn’t tell anyone,” Harry’s voice cut through the air. “Louis’ Delphox. She saw a vision that it would be bad if people found out about them.”

“No shit,” Niall said. “Pokemon from other worlds are rarely a good sign.”

“Yeah, you’re telling me,” Liam said.

“Ah yes, Mr. Captured Rayquaza, you probably know all about pokemon from other worlds,” Louis said. The words were cutting but the way he delivered them wasn’t nearly as vicious. Harry thought it was almost...an invitation to continue.

Liam’s head snapped to him as his fist clenched. “Hey, I _earned_ that capture. And I worked really, _really_ fucking hard to gain not only Rayquaza’s trust, but Kyogre and Groudon too. Team Plasma and Aqua had no idea what powers they were messing with and I’m betting whoever brought those pokemon here don’t know either.”

“They never do,” Harry said quietly, his mind flashing to the labs deep inside Team Rocket’s lair, where they experimented and created the first man-made pokemon. How that pokemon had killed every scientist who had worked on to make it.

The silence fell over all of them again, and Harry realized in that moment that the three men here might be the first people who truly understood him, and what he’d experienced as a trainer. Rita climbed into his lap from Louis’ and Harry squeezed her close to his chest.

The knock on the door of room service appearing broke the tension. But it was back just as soon as Louis closed the door on the server, thanking her for the delivery. He brought the cart over to the four of them and offered Harry some food.

When he sat back down he addressed Liam casually. “You sound like you’ve seen some shit too. Tell us about it.”

Liam laughed but he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he began speaking. He talked about Team Magma and Team Aqua and how Liam got caught up in their fight to awaken the legendary pokemon Kyogre and Groudon. He hadn’t meant to, he was just a young trainer, trying to complete the Pokemon League challenge in Hoenn like so many people. But he’d been drawn into the battle when he’d just happened to be at Mt. Chimney looking for pokemon when Team Magma tried to make it erupt.

From there it had been a cat and mouse game between him and both gangs: him trying to stop them as best he could, while they tried to kill him. When they both unleashed Kyogre and Groudon the only way to stop them had been with Rayquaza, who Liam ended up having to find and capture.

“Their leaders had been killed by Kyogre and Groudon so at least both gangs dissolved after that but it wasn’t… I had a lot of nightmares you know?”

Harry was nodding before he even fully realized what he was doing. He opened his mouth to answer but Niall beat him to it.

“Same here. I only recently was able to start battling with Giratina, and it’s been six years since I caught them.”

“ _You’re_ the trainer who caught Giratina?” Liam asked.

“And Palkia, and Dialga. I had to. In the hands of anyone else…” Niall put his hand over his mouth as he seemed to think about his next words. “You know they never fully reported what happened up there? On the Spear Pillar with Team Galactic. They were just happy Team Galactic was gone so they never bothered to listen to me about what happened.”

“What happened,” Louis asked.

“Giratina sent the leader to another world. Brought me with him too.”

“Holy shit,” Harry whispered, horrified, but Niall just shrugged.

“I don’t actually know how long I was away for… time passes differently there I think, but yeah. I saw just how powerful Giratina was and I couldn’t bring myself to even look at them afterwards. The leader of Team Galactic had wanted to create a whole new world with them and I couldn’t let that happen.” Niall sighed and leaned back into the couch, eyes on the two pokemon who seemed unaware of the conversation happening. “Whoever did something to bring the Cosmoem here might not even be alive still.”

“That’s possible,” Louis said with a nod. “We don’t know anything.”

“We know they’re scared of the Aether Foundation,” Harry said.

“I told you, Wicke and the Aether Foundation are all about healing pokemon. They’re the good guys. I _know_ them.”

“Sometimes the people we think are good are the really fucked up ones, you know?” Niall said.

Harry saw the moment Louis closed off, his jaw going tight and his eyes going distant as his arms crossed his chest. Rita squirmed in Harry’s grip and hopped over to his lap, trying to comfort him, but he just pat her on the head, distracted.

“What about you, Harry?” Liam asked, voice gentle. “Based on my own experience, the stuff they say about you and taking down Team Rocket isn’t half as true as it is.”

Harry’s eyes closed, trying to think what to say. “I saw a therapist. After everything. Beating both leagues I mean. I’d just been a kid. _Youngest Pokemon Champion in the World_ everyone calls me. I’d only gone onto Johto to distract myself from what had happened at home.” None of the other men responded and eventually Harry felt brave enough to open his eyes. “The man I spoke to didn’t understand me. I didn’t feel comfortable talking to him, so I...just didn’t. I never spoke with anyone about what happened, just my pokemon. The ones who were there.”

“Do you want to?” Niall asked.

Harry looked at each of them. Niall and Liam leaning forward attentively, like they cared about what he would say. Louis had Rita in his lap, scratching her head. He still looked closed off but he was watching Harry.

“I didn’t _actually_ do that much work to break up Team Rocket. Not as much as the news reported. When I got to their hideout outside Celadon City there actually wasn’t anyone still alive.” He crossed his arms over his chest and clutched his wrists. “It was _awful_. Have you ever smelled burnt flesh before? I threw up. But I couldn’t just leave. I was the Pokemon Champion after all. So everyone thought I was the right person to go and make sure Team Rocket was well and truly gone.”

“But you were just a kid,” Louis said.

“Yeah. Team Rocket had uh, they’d been working on creating a pokemon.”

“Mewtwo,” Liam said.

Harry nodded.

“But they failed, right? Mewtwo was just a prototype.”

“No. They were successful. Mewtwo is why Team Rocket was really destroyed. He broke out and killed everyone. We were all lucky Team Rocket hadn’t been stupid enough to build him in their city headquarters or else the casualties would have been devastating. Or well, _more_ devastating.” Harry sucked in a shaky breath as he tried to stop himself from crying. “I knew I had to hunt him down. I had to catch him before he hurt anyone else. And I thought it would be okay, I really did.”

“You managed to catch him?” Niall asked.

“I killed him.” Harry couldn’t stop the tears anymore. “I didn’t mean to. It wasn’t what I wanted. I’d tracked him to this cave outside Cerulean City and I meant to catch him or try and tame him or something. I was so good at that. All pokemon I’d met had loved me. Fucking, _fucking_ Zapdos hadn’t even put up a fight. I thought it would be okay. But Mewtwo… he was so angry and hurt and powerful. He crushed all my Poke Balls before I could even think of throwing them. I didn’t have any other choice. If he escaped from me I didn’t know what he would do. I was worried he’d kill and hurt more people.” He was openly sobbing now, choking on air to try and get the words out, his body folding in on itself. “I didn’t mean to do it.”

He felt someone rubbing his back but he wasn’t sure who it was.

“It’s okay.”

“You did what you had to do.”

“Anyone else would have done the same.”

He didn’t know who said what, he just shook his head and said into his knees. “We’re supposed to protect pokemon. We’re supposed to make sure they’re safe and loved, not _kill_ them.”

He was being manhandled into a hug and he could hear Rita’s soft call of “Pika, piiik” but he just kept shaking his head.

“Hey, hey, Harry. Look at me. Here.”

It was Louis.

Perfect, wonderful Louis who’d seen him cry the other night and probably thought he was the worst thing in the world. He spent his life working on breeding Pokemon, bringing them into this world. There was no way he didn’t find him disgusting in this moment. Harry tried to pull away, not wanting to see the horrified look Louis was no doubt giving him but Louis was insistent.

“Harry. It’s okay. You were in an _impossible_ situation, but you did it to protect people. I think we all have said tonight that we’ve done and seen some pretty fucked up stuff in the name of protecting people. Protecting the world.”

_Not you,_ Harry thought. _You’re perfect._

“And we may not have lived exactly your life but we get it.” Harry saw Louis look to his side to confirm with Niall and Liam.

Niall was nodding. “If I hadn’t been able to catch Palkia or Dialga I would have had no choice but to kill them.”

“Me too. With Kyogre and Groudon. I thought I was going to _have_ to kill them to stop them.”

He realized Louis was stroking his head and he looked back at him. “Me too. When you go up against a legendary you’re putting yourself in a catch-or-kill situation. You were just a kid when this happened, _Youngest Pokemon Champion Ever_ be damned. Surviving doesn’t make you a horrible person.” Harry teared up again as he shook his head in disbelief. Louis gave him a sharp shake. “You, Harry Styles, are not a horrible person for surviving. That’s what my mom had to tell me. Now I want you to repeat it back to me.”

Harry sniffed. “Your mom told you that?”

Louis nodded. “I told you, I worked out a lot of my own shit with her. Now repeat those words.”

“I’m not a horrible person for surviving.” Harry stumbled over the words, but he said them.

“Pika!” Rita said from beside him and Harry couldn’t stop the tiny smile that crept up on his face from it.

“Again.”

“I’m not a horrible person for surviving.” His voice was a little stronger.

“Damn right!” Niall said.

“I am not a horrible person for surviving.”

“Good,” Louis said, dropping his hands from Harry’s shoulders. “Never forget that, no matter how much your mind might try and guilt you. It’s okay to do whatever you can to survive.”

Harry nodded and watched as Louis stood up from where he’d been kneeling. He wiped his eyes with the back of his shirt. “Sorry about the waterworks.”

“Don’t apologize,” Niall said. “Happens to all of us at some point.”

“Yeah, it’s not okay to keep that all bottled up,” Liam said.

“Here, have something to eat,” Louis said coming back to the couch with a plate of food. “It’ll make you feel better.”

“Thanks,” Harry said. He started to eat the sandwich Louis had given him as light conversation took over the heavy atmosphere.

Liam began talking about his team and his plans for his first batch of battles. Harry listened as they spoke. Louis had been right, the food was making him feel better. He hadn’t really thought about that night in the cave for years. Sure, he carried it with him all the time, but that felt so passive. This had been ripping open the wound again, but this time it felt like there might be some healing coming from it.

Knowing there had been others who went through similar experiences was a relief. He was truly the only trainer in Kanto and Johto who had gone up against legendaries, and the weight of that knowledge had never settled fully. But now he was with three other men who had done it in their own countries.

He could see these being friendships that would last passed the tournament.

At some point Niall coaxed them out onto the balcony and opened a bottle of wine for them to all share.

“Not too much, since we all got battles tomorrow. Well, except for me,” Niall had said with a laugh.

Harry had soaked in the calm, warm ocean breeze as he nursed his cup of wine. Rita was snoring in Louis’ lap and he couldn’t stop himself from watching. He’d never seen Rita take so quickly to someone else and he made him worried what would happen when they left.

He supposed he could always visit Kalos. It probably wasn’t that far away from him.

“Hey, what’s that?” Liam’s voice broke his stare, and he looked up just in time to see something green and flitting crash into his face with a happy squeal.

He shrieked, wine splashing all over his pants and shirt. “Shit!” He stood up, Celebi flapping away from him and _laughing_ at him. “Celebi! What are you doing here?”

Celebi chirped and squealed at him, but he had no idea how to begin to understand what they were saying.

“Pika?” Rita poked her head up from Louis’ lap and Celebi flitted over to her, pressing their noses together.

“Uh, Harry? What the fuck?” Louis asked.

“I think I drank too much wine,” Niall said, looking at the bottle and then his cup.

“No, that’s just Celebi. They live in the forest by my farm. I don’t know why they flew here.” Harry managed to get ahold of napkins and was trying to dap the stain, but he was pretty sure it was going to be a lost cause.

“You captured Celebi?” Louis asked.

“Yeah. Well, no. I didn’t capture them. Like I said they live in the forest by my farm, but sometimes they come visit me? I don’t really count them as my pokemon.”

“Of course,” Louis said, and only then did Harry realize that all three of the men were staring at Celebi speechless.

“What are you looking at?”

“Just, it’s Celebi you know?” Liam said. “You don’t expect for them to just _show up_ somewhere.”

“You all have your own legendaries,” Harry said, watching Celebi pull Rita off of Louis’ lap and into the air for a few flaps before they both landed on the ground.

“And I purposefully went and sought them out. They didn’t just show up and decide to live outside my house.”

“Celebi is harmless,” Harry said. “Essentially.”

“Can I?” Liam asked as he pulled out his pokedex to scan Celebi.

Niall and Louis scrambled to do the same thing, adding Celebi to their pokedexes.

Harry rolled his eyes. “So, Rita, what’s Celebi doing here?”

Rita looked up at him and her nose twitched. “Pikachu pika pika pik pik pikachu.”

Harry frowned as he watched her paws move with her words. “General mischief and boredom, got it.” He looked down at his shirt and sighed. “I’m gonna run inside and change. I’ll be right back.”

He wasn’t surprised when Celebi followed him inside. They were so curious. Harry left them to their devices as he went into his bedroom and pulled out his sleeping clothes. He filled up the bathroom sink and put his pants and shirt in to soak. When he emerged from his room it was to Celebi staring at the Cosmoem, who were asleep floating above the couch.

“We found them in our closet, can you believe it?” He asked them.

Celebi turned to him and Harry frowned. Their face was weird. He’d never seen their eyes so wide. It was almost like Celebi was...afraid. But that didn’t make any sense.

Celebi disappeared.

“What the?” Harry had never seen Celebi just vanish before. Sometimes they were incorporeal but it was almost like Celebi had teleported. He stepped into the space Celebi had just been.

“What’s the matter?” Louis asked from the door.

“Celebi disappeared.” Harry was staring at the Cosmoem, both still sleeping.

“Why?”

“I… don’t know? They saw the Cosmoem and when I told them we’d found the two of them, Celebi looked at me and just vanished.” Harry bit his lip. “I think Celebi was afraid of them.”

Louis stepped into the room, eyes on the Cosmoem. “Oh. That’s probably not a good thing. Celebi’s pokedex entry told me they only appear during peaceful times.”

Harry’s stomach sunk. The Cosmoem looked so peaceful sitting there. “Yeah. That’s why I’m worried.”

***

“Battle Kanto 23: Harry versus Brock is going to begin on Stage 4 in five minutes.”

Louis checked his bag once more to make sure he had everything before rushing out of the locker room and heading for Stage 4. He had gone four for four again today, and he wanted to see Harry have his last battle of the day if he could. He had only heard how his first two matches had gone - both wins - and he was hoping that Harry had managed to win his third battle as well.

He was rushing through the almost empty backstage halls, trying to get to Stage 4 as fast as possible, when he heard his name.

“Professor Tomlinson! Hello!”

He groaned but slowed down, recognizing the voice. He turned and saw Lusamine, head of the Aether Foundation, dressed in what he had come to recognize as her normal attire of an all white dress and leggings. It made her waist length light blonde hair stand out even when she was so pale.

“Lusamine, hi. Wicke had told me you’d be around.”

She laughed and reached out for a hug. “Yes, yes, I had some things to clear up at the labs but I’m here now. How are you? I saw you’re currently in first place for the Kalos region. Undefeated.”

Louis nodded. “I am. It’s been great to battle again.”

“Yes, of course. But a little birdie told me that your research is coming along. Successful breeding of Scatterbugs is what I’ve heard,” she said, arching a quizzical eyebrow.

“Well yes.”

“You really should join us here in Alola. That mind would be a great asset in our goal of protecting all pokemon.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Louis said. “I’m pretty happy in Lumiose City.”

“Battle Kanto 23: Harry versus Brock is going to begin on Stage 4 in three minutes.”

Louis’ eyes darted towards the sign pointing for Stage 4. “I’m sorry, but if you’ll excuse me-”

“How about you come to our labs tomorrow? You’re finished with your battles, I’m sure you can step away to see what we have to offer,” Lusamine’s hand rested on his forearm. “Please, Professor Tomlinson.”

“I,” his mind flashed to the Cosmoem and how they’d reacted to Wicke. How Harry thought there was something up with the Aether Foundation. What a better way to find out for sure where they stood than actually visiting. “Sure. Give me the coordinates and I’ll fly over there?”

“Excellent. Tomorrow at let’s say noon? How does that work?”

“Sounds great.”

“Battle Kanto 23: Harry versus Brock is going to begin on Stage 4 in one minute.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Lusamine,” Louis said before he took off in a full sprint, running towards Stage 4 and the trainer boxes that were set up. Louis found an empty seat and sat down. Harry and Brock were just getting onto the stage and Louis leaned forward. Harry looked so different standing in the ring. This was the Harry Styles that Louis had followed as a boy. The one who commanded the ring, who was one of the most powerful trainers in the world.

_Strong enough to take down some of the strongest pokemon in the world,_ his mind whispered.

Louis ignored the voice and focused on the battle that was starting. Rita was sitting on Harry’s shoulder and Louis wasn’t sure if that was because she was always out, or if - for some reason - Harry was going to use her against Brock. Louis was almost positive Brock was a rock type trainer, and rock was resistant to electric attacks.

The buzzer rang to signal the start of the fight and Brock threw his Poke Ball.

“Brock has started with Onix! And what’s this? Harry is sticking with his Pikachu?” The announcer’s voice filled the arena.

Louis’ eyes were glued to the ring. Rita had in fact jumped down from Harry’s shoulder.

“What is Harry thinking?” The announcer continued. “He has to know electric attacks are essentially useless against rock types, no matter how strong his Pikachu is!”

Louis frowned, running over Harry’s team in his mind. He hadn’t had any water types or grass types, unless one of the pokemon knew a non-type move? But if that was the case why did he have Rita out? Was it for her speed?

He watched in horror as a torrent of rocks went right for her, but Rita managed to dodge with her speed.

And then suddenly…

There was water.

“Harry’s Pikachu has used the move surf! This is absolutely incredible! His Pikachu knows a water move! What an amazing play by the world’s youngest pokemon champion! There’s a reason he’s considered one of the best. And Onix is out of the match! Brock only has Golem left, and knowing that a surf-using Pikachu is on the other end must be devastating to him. This battle is as good as won.”

***

“You taught Rita surf?” Louis asked as they got back to their room.

Harry shrugged as if it was no big deal. “We had some spare time on Cinnabar Island and I thought it would be funny. We weren’t sure she could learn it but somehow she did! It’s a great trick, isn’t it?” That’s when his smile finally broke out.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“Thanks!” Harry said as he threw himself onto the couch. “You’ll get to see more of that tomorrow.”

Louis frowned as he remembered his plans for tomorrow. “Uh, yeah, about that, I actually am going to the Aether Foundation tomorrow.”

Panicked squeaking from the Cosmoem came from the bedroom and Louis sighed. Not exactly the reaction he was hoping for from them, but it just made him all the more determined to figure out what was going on with the Aether Foundation.

“What?!” Harry stood up. “You’re doing what?”

“I ran into Lusamine, the owner of the Aether Foundation. She invited me to see their work, and I figured it would be a good chance to prove they aren’t doing anything wrong.”

“Not doing anything wrong? Do you _hear_ that? How terrified they sound at the mere _mention_ of that, that organization?”

“Of course I do, but I’m telling you, _they’re one of the good guys._ ”

“Niall said it best, sometimes it’s the ones we trust and believe in that are the true enemies.”

“You think I don’t know that? I’m well fucking aware, Harry. But you wanna know what the difference between all those other organizations and the Aether Foundation is? They are trying to _protect pokemon_. That’s their whole motto. That’s what all their research goes for. They aren’t out there, trying to form a gang and create a pokemon, or change the landscape of the planet, or make a whole new planet, or make the world beautiful by fucking killing everything on it. Their mission is to protect pokemon, not _kill them_ like some monsters.”

Harry’s lip was trembling across from him, but he stood his ground even as tears started to spill over. “Fuck you for that.”

“What?” The fight left Louis as immediately as it came at the sight of Harry crying. “That wasn’t meant, that wasn’t supposed to be a jab at you. I was just...trying to prove a point.” Harry’s shoulders shook as Louis stepped into his space and pulled him into a loose hug. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Harry was shaking his head even as he reached up and clung to Louis.

“I’m so, so sorry, Harry,” Louis whispered against his temple. “I didn’t mean it.”

“Please just,” Harry choked over a sob. “Just stop talking. You’ve done enough of that tonight.”

Louis closed his eyes and hugged Harry tighter. “You’re right.” He vowed to himself right then he’d make it better. Tomorrow. He’d fix this all tomorrow.


	5. Chapter 5

“And for the final battle from Kanto I’m pleased to announce Harry and Karen. Their current records are seven-for-seven and five-for-seven. If Harry manages to win he will be the only competitor from Kanto who has managed to go undefeated. He’ll join the ranks of Louis from Kalos and Niall from Sinnoh as being the only undefeated champions going into the round of sixteen!”

Harry heard the announcer but he let the chatter wash over him. Karen ran a dark team, that he remembered from his run through the Elite Four as a child. She’d been insanely powerful, and dark pokemon were difficult to counter. They were only weak to a few types and Harry didn’t have any of those types on his team.

_So much for being well rounded,_ he heard Louis’ voice say in his head.

He snorted and shook his head to try and clear it. He had tried to not think about Louis all day, but naturally that meant he thought way too much about him. What had happened the night before had _hurt_. Regardless of Louis’ intent, and it being a mistake, the fact that he had even _said that_ right after Harry had opened up to him… it hurt. He was almost glad he hadn’t seen Louis cheering him on in the stands, even though all yesterday that’s all he had been looking forward to.

The starting buzzer sounded and Harry shoved all the thoughts to the side as Karen threw out her first pokemon.

“Karen has started with Weavile while Harry has opted for his Persian.”

Harry had gone with Mio because he thought trying to go baseline would be the best way to handle this. His mind racked with the information he knew about Weaviles.

_Ice subtype._

“Mio! Headbutt!”

Mio took a diving header into Weavile, catching them right in the stomach. Harry clenched his fists in delight and prepared to yell for Mio to use hyperbeam now that he the Weavile close but suddenly Mio was flying across the stage. He landed in front of Harry, bruised.

“Weavile used low kick! The fighting type move is super effective against Persian.”

From there Harry was on the backfoot all battle. He replaced Mio with Sandy who took out Weavile with a simple earthquake, but then they couldn’t get passed Absol - a pure dark type monster. He ran through Sandy and Chance to get rid of her Absol, and then out came her Houndoom.

He switched out Chance for Rita, hoping to exploit Houndoom’s fire subtype.

It worked, but Houndoom ran Rita ragged. Harry was happy to see Karen’s next pokemon was a Honchkrow - a flying type - that Rita could take down with a thunderbolt while she tried to catch her breath.

Karen pulled out another Poke Ball - and seriously how many pokemon did she have? Every other trainer he’d battled so far had capped out their team at four, but Karen didn’t seem concerned.

She threw out her next pokemon and Harry blinked. He didn’t immediately recognize the pokemon.

“Karen is now using her trusty Spiritomb! The ghost-dark type has helped her out of many tight spots. Let’s see if she can make a serious dent in Harry’s team.”

_Ghost and dark? Fuck._

Harry didn’t even begin to know what would work against that.

“Rita! Thunderbolt!”

Spiritomb seemed unbothered by the attacked.

And then Rita was engulfed by a pink fog.

“Shit,” Harry said.

“Looks like Spiritomb just put a curse on Pikachu! That _can not_ be good.”

No. No it wasn’t good. Harry needed to call Rita back before she fainted.

“Rita! Come back here!”

Rita looked back at him just as Spiritomb hit her with another attack - this time confuse ray.

“Rita! Come back here!”

“Oh it just keeps getting worse for Harry. Pikachu has been hit with confuse ray and is now confused! Pikachu might be too confused to know what to do!”

Harry swore under his breath. He rarely wished that Rita had a Poke Ball but this was one of the few occasions he needed it. Without it she had to leave the ring, or faint. And with a curse on her…

“Rita! Come on!”

He watched as she stumbled right into another of Spiritomb’s attacks.

“Pikachu is getting weak, both from the curse, the damage they’re doing to themselves, _and_ the attacks coming from Spiritomb. But Harry can’t call Pikachu back because he doesn’t have a Poke Ball.”

Harry could only watch helpless as Rita was hit over and over again by Spiritomb. It wasn’t until Rita had fainted that he was able to run out the stage and scope her up in his arms. He was close enough to Karen that he heard when she said, “Sorry, Harry, it’s about winning.”

He knew that, he did, but holding Rita’s unconscious body against his chest reminded him of the worst parts of battling. He took his time going back to his square and he carefully put Rita back on the ground, tucking her into a comfortable position. “Don’t worry. We’ll handle this,” he whispered to her, before he stood up again and turned around.

He didn’t announce Lugia when he threw the Poke Ball. He just waited for the reaction when the legendary bird came out onto the stage. It was always impressive and Harry watched as Karen took a step back, intimidated. Three ice beams and an aero blast later, Harry had secured his eighth victory, though it felt hollow with Rita still unconscious. He’d need to take her to one of the pokemon centers.

Noone was there to greet him as both Niall and Liam had battles still, and Louis was probably not going to show his face. Harry didn’t even know where he was; if he had decided to stupidly go to the Aether Foundation like he’d claimed he would yesterday. He made his way to the pokemon center, trying to smile back when trainers congratulated him on his win, but mostly focusing on Rita in his arms.

It would be okay. The nurses at the pokemon center would heal her and she’d be fine.

A Gardevoir was waiting at the pokemon center, eyes focused ahead as she floated above the ground. It wasn’t until Harry got closer that he realized he recognized that specific Gardevoir.

“Patsy?” He asked. “What are you doing here? Where’s Louis?” He stopped next to her in front of the counter and took a moment to hand over all his pokemon to the nurse, including Rita. Once they were set up to be healed he turned back to Patsy. “Louis?”

She shook her head and cooed at him. Louis wasn’t here, then.

“Where is he? Did he go to the Aether Foundation?” Patsy hesitated for a moment and then nodded. Harry swore under his breath. Louis was a fucking idiot. “Why are you here then?”

Patsy waved her hand in front of her body as she chirped before pointing to Harry.

He furrowed his brows as she repeated the motion and then it clicked. “Protect me?” Patsy nodded. “Why the hell…” Harry trailed off as the implication sunk in. Louis thought there was a chance something would happen at the Aether Foundation. “Fucking hell,” he said as he turned back to the nurse to see how his pokemon’s healing was coming along. The counter in front of him was empty so all he could do was tap his foot impatiently while he waited for his pokemon to be returned. “Patsy do you have your Poke Ball?” He saw her produce it from somewhere and he took it from her. “You’re gonna come with me, okay? We’re gonna make sure Louis hasn’t done something ridiculously stupid.”

It felt like forever before the nurse handed him back Rita and his Poke Balls, but he knew it was probably only a couple minutes.

“Pikaaa pik pikachu,” Rita said as she hopped into his arms.

He sighed and kissed her head. “I’m so sorry you fainted.”

“Pika?”

“Yeah, we won. Undefeated. But listen, we need to get going. I think Louis has done something ridiculously stupid.”

“Pika pikachu?”

“I’ll explain on the way,” Harry said, already heading outside so he and Lugia could take off. He pulled out his pokegear and hoped the map he’d downloaded before coming to Alola was accurate so he could get to the Aether Foundation as quick as possible.

***

The Aether Foundation labs - named rather ridiculously in Louis’ opinion Aether Paradise - were lavish and just as ridiculous as the name. They were located on a giant artificial floating island in the middle of the ocean. They were at least forty miles from the closest island - Oni Island. Louis was hit with a sense of foreboding as he climbed off of Ptera, and it was only partially due to Cosmoem shaking in his bag.

He hadn’t intended on taking Cosmoem but his Cosmoem had refused to let him leave them behind. So that’s how he ended up carrying a petrified Cosmoem in his bag, hoping that no one would notice. He was 100% sure whatever happened to the Cosmoem occurred here, but he still had no idea what it was.

“Professor Tomlinson,” an older man with balding blond hair in a white lab coat greeted him as he put Ptera in his Poke Ball. “I’m Faba, Aether Foundations’ Branch Chief.”

Louis took his hand, the sinking sensation in his stomach deepening. Faba was definitely off-putting, almost downright creepy. “Pleased to be here.” He dropped his hand the moment he could.

“I hope you are enjoying Alola, and the tournament? I believe you are one of the only trainers who had gone undefeated.”

“As of yesterday, that’s correct, but there are plenty of battles today so I’m sure a few more trainers will win.”

“So humble,” Faba said as he gestured towards the imposing white building. “Please, follow me. I will be giving you the tour. Lusamine will meet us later to go over research and what you are studying.”

“I’ve already told her I wasn’t interested in switching labs,” Louis said. He refused to get strong armed into this.

“Of course not. This is simply an introduction to our own research. Maybe after you see it you’ll feel differently.”

Louis felt some sort of way, that’s for sure. He nodded, his bag shaking. “Do you mind if I bring out my Delphox, Foxy? She takes notes for me.” This wasn’t a lie exactly, but he felt safer if Foxy was right there. Her premonitions would be helpful.

Faba gestured for him to go ahead. “We have a security measure set up here where unused Poke Balls do not work, but they won’t affect normal Poke Balls.”

Louis let out Foxy and watched her face for any sort of warning. She stayed impassive as she scanned the outside area before her eyes landed on Louis’ bag. Louis shifted it from one shoulder to the other. “How did you get that set up?”

Faba launched into a detailed description of the blocking technology they had up around the entire island, and how it was meant to keep the rescued pokemon the foundation had safe. Louis half listened as they entered the building, which was bustling with people. That calmed him down a little.

The tour was overall pretty standard. It was the same pitch Sycamore’s lab had given him before he had signed on to work there: look at our new technology, isn’t it pretty? isn’t it shiny? don’t you want to be here? And the worst part was it _was_ pretty. It _was_ shiny, and exciting and everything Louis looked for in a lab.

But Cosmoem kept shaking in his bag and Louis couldn’t _not_ focus on that.

“Ah, Faba, Professor Tomlinson, there you both are,” Lusamine said as she came down a corridor. She embraced Louis for a quick moment before turning to Foxy. “What a beautiful Delphox you have. Absolutely gorgeous.”

Louis suppressed his shudder at the words and painted a smile on his face. “Your facilities are amazing, Lusamine. You should be so proud of the work you’re doing here.”

Her smile turned coy and she glanced at Faba, winking. “You haven’t seen the best part. Come on, I’ll continue the tour from here.”

His bag was becoming almost unbearable, the weight of Cosmoem shaking was worse than he had anticipated. He pushed on though, saying goodbye to Faba and following Lusamine.

“Your breeding experiments are truly amazing, Professor. Your breakthroughs will help create elite and healthy pokemon, but I do think about what happens with the other pokemon? The ones who aren’t perfect?”

“We’ve donated every pokemon to either a sanctuary that works with human rehabilitation centers, or farms, or schools.”

Lusamine nodded. “Aether Foundations’ mission is to protect every pokemon. All pokemon, regardless of ability, are deserving of love.”

“Of course,” Louis said. “My breeding for perfect abilities is more for science, to see if it’s _possible_ to breed pokemon in any way we want. Say if in a hundred years Caterpies develop an illness, some sort of cancer, or mutation. My research would be the backbone in knowing there was a way to potentially stop it. These traits could be stopped.”

Lusamine seemed to think on that as she lead him through a door. When she shut it he saw they were in a large white room. There was only one large table, piled high with papers, and a computer on the edge.

“This is my personal lab,” Lusamine said. “Have you heard of Ultra Beasts?”

Foxy tensed beside him, and Louis forced himself not to react. “I can’t say I have. Are they a form of legendary?”

Lusamine nodded, standing in front of the computer. She clicked for a moment and then a 3D holographic image filled up some of the floor. It was a swirling black and purple vortex. “This is an Ultra Wormhole. We discovered them over a year ago, and they are slowly bringing what we call Ultra Beasts through to our world. Incredibly strong, rare pokemon, but so scared because they are in a new world. They need our help to acclimate to this world. Protection.”

Louis stared at the 3D image as it shifted, showing some sort of pokemon coming through the vortex. “You’re worried they’ll hurt people?”

“You know what happened in Hoenn, correct? With Groudon and Kyogre.” Louis nodded. Lusamine pursed her lips. “Groups want to use pokemon for evil. Pokemon are not inherently evil, they are innocent, but because of people’s actions they sometimes do evil things. They need to be in a place where that can’t happen, because otherwise these precious pokemon might be killed.” She clicked on her keyboard and the 3D image shifted, showing two small pokemon. They looked identical, black in color with yellow eyes and two blue cheeks. Both pokemon had two wisp-like extensions.

Louis could tell immediately they were some form Cosmoem had been before.

“Instead of leaving these Ultra Wormholes up to chance I had two pokemon that could open a wormhole whenever they wanted. But unfortunately the last time we did this they evolved and escaped. I’m looking for them now, and when we get them back I hope you can help me. I’m unsure if their evolved forms will harness the same powers, and I’m hoping that you’d be able to assist us in breeding them.”

Louis tightened his grip on the bag. “Legendaries can’t breed. They’re sexless.”

Lusamine’s eyes narrowed. “I didn’t say they were legendaries. They were Ultra Beasts.”

“Scientifically I would put them in the same category.” Foxy touched his shoulder, lifting the bag strap, and taking his bag from him. Louis kept his eyes locked on Lusamine. “My research isn’t about breeding legendaries, or ultra beasts.”

“There were two of them. They have to be able to breed.”

“That’s not always how it works. There are plenty of Porygon for example, but they don’t breed.”

“Porygon were coded into existence. They hardly count.” She stepped away from her computer, her eyes locked on something. Louis followed them and saw she was staring at his bag, which Foxy was holding to her chest in some attempt to comfort Cosmoem without being obvious. Lusamine’s mouth opened -

And so did the door.

Harry poked his head in. “What’s in here?”

“Mr. Styles please,” Wicke’s voice came from the hallway. “I told you, you can’t just look in any room you wish, people are working.”

Harry looked completely shocked, eyes wide and innocent. “I’m so, _so_ sorry I completely forgot. I was just so curious. Your lab is so big. How do you not get lost in here?”

Lusamine brushed past Louis and pulled the door wide open. “Wicke, what’s the meaning of this?”

Louis could see Wicke standing in the hall, Faba beside her. Both of them looked apologetic and also silently seething. Faba answered. “Mr. Styles - Mr. _Harry_ Styles, arrived and asked for a tour of the facilities. But it seems his enthusiasm is...a little unexpected.”

Lusamine looked at Harry and Louis could see the way her eyes softened as she realized who she was looking at. Louis had experienced that enough times in the past couple days to know what it meant. Everyone loved Harry Styles. This image they’d built up in their head of the Greatest Pokemon Champion Ever. “Mr. Styles. A pleasure to meet you. I’m Lusamine, the head of Aether Foundation. Welcome to Aether Paradise.”

Harry gave her his big wide eye stare and Louis realized that Rita on his shoulder was mimicking it. “Your facility is amazing.”

Lusamine laughed, high pitched and almost flirty. “Why thank you Mr. Styles. I was just meeting with Professor Tomlinson, maybe you two have met? You’re both in the tournament?”

Louis met Harry’s eye then and it sunk in why he was there. Harry knew Louis had gotten himself into trouble. They’d need to play this very carefully. “We did meet,” Louis said.

“I’m a big fan of his research,” Harry said.

Lusamine lit up even more. “Are you? Then perhaps you can help me convince him to work for us.”

Harry’s eyes cut over to Louis for a moment and then back to Lusamine. “Of course. What would you need him for?”

“We have two pokemon I would like him to breed for me. They’ve evolved and I’m unsure their evolutions will do what I need.”

“What would you do with the evolutions once you’ve bred them?” Harry asked.

Louis hadn’t thought to ask that.

“Follow me,” Lusamine said, drawing Harry, Wicke, and Faba her lab fully. “I was about to bring Professor Tomlinson in here, but I’m sure you will appreciate it too. It’s where I keep all my precious pokemon, to keep them safe.” She walked to the other side of the room and put her palm on the wall. It triggered a door to open, seamless from the wall.

Louis had a bad feeling about this but there was no way he couldn’t walk into the room. Wicke and Faba followed them, caging them in and Louis wanted so desperately to reach out for Harry’s hand. He settled for pressing their biceps together as they followed Lusamine.

It took a moment for the lights to come on, and then another moment for his eyes to adjust to the bright white lights bouncing off the bright white walls. The room was cold and he didn’t understand why until he registered what was in front of him.

“Look at them,” Lusamine said, walking up to a display stand and putting her hand on the case atop it. Inside it was a Raichu posed mid-attack. It looked almost life-like and then Louis realized it was life-like because it was _real_. The case was filled with ice, freezing the Raichu in place forever.

Louis’ head snapped to the side to see more of the room. Rows, and rows of pokemon encased in ice. He stared horrified, a hand over his mouth as bile rushed up his throat. There were hundreds of pokemon here, all trapped, frozen. They’d been real pokemon and Lusamine had frozen them for display.

“You monster,” Harry whispered, and Louis knew it was involuntary even before he looked at him.

Lusamine turned to them, frowning. “What do you mean? I’m _protecting_ them. This is the only way to keep them _safe_.” It was like she didn’t understand.

“Safe?” Harry laughed rough and hollow.

“Yes,” she said. And she sounded so convinced of herself. “People are _horrible_ , you both have to know that. And they use pokemon to carry out their evil deeds. The only way to save them and love them is by protecting them from all humans.”

Louis took a step back but Wicke and Faba were blocking them inside. They were trapped. He looked towards Foxy, trying to see if she was ready for the battle that he knew was coming and he saw her trying to keep the bag with Cosmoem inside close to her body.

It was no use.

Cosmoem broke free of the bag with a shrill screech and ran straight for Lusamine.

She dodged out of pure instinct, falling to the ground. “My pokemon!” She cried as she recognized Cosmoem. “You came back to me!”

“Cosmoem get back in the bag,” Louis yelled just as Foxy grabbed them from the air.

“Rita! Shock ‘em,” Harry said and Louis turned just in time to see faint thunderbolts run through the ground and up Wicke and Faba’s legs, dropping both of them to the ground. “Louis we need to get out of here, _now_.”

Louis didn’t need told twice. He stuffed Cosmoem back into the bag and made a run for the door.

“No, come back here!” Lusamine yelled. “Milotic _stop them_.”

A Poke Ball landed in front of them and out came the water-type pokemon Milotic. She was a large, beige water serpent with a blue and red fin. Louis cursed. “Rita! Thunderbolt,” he yelled before Harry could say anything.

Rita didn’t need told twice, shocking the Milotic and dropping her.

Louis ran out the door with the bag clutched in his hand, Rita, Harry, and Foxy right behind him. He ran back the way he’d come, hoping they could escape. He didn’t dare look back just in case he saw Lusamine gaining on them.

Another Poke Ball landed in front of them. Out came Lilligant, a grass type.

“Foxy, flamethrower,” Harry said, running ahead as he held out a Poke Ball. “Sandy, we need a way out of here, fast.”

Louis could see people running towards them and he finally looked back. Lusamine was gaining on them. Harry was right. They needed out of here. But they were on some top floor. There was no way they were getting to the ground.

“Smash through the walls until you get to a window, Sandy,” Harry said.

Louis pulled Foxy back into her Poke Ball and followed the path Sandy was making. His blood was pounding as he saw light - actual sunlight - coming through a window. “Come on, come on.”

Sandy smashed the window open in two punches, and as soon as the fresh air hit him Sandy was pulled back into her Poke Ball and Lugia had taken her place.

“Get on,” Harry said, holding his hand out.

Louis didn’t need told twice as he took Harry’s hand and climbed onto Lugia’s back.

They took off to the screams of Lusamine telling them to stop.

[ ](https://78.media.tumblr.com/ec048df645a95ccb6c7ff5218fadefaa/tumblr_p8xb35C1zY1qhgtd3o2_1280.jpg)

***

“We’re fucked, we’re fucked,” Louis said as he grabbed his suitcase from the floor. He needed to pack. He needed to get out of here.

“Louis.”

“We are so, _so_ incredibly fucked.”

“Louis.”

“What?!” He turned to Harry who was standing in the door.

It was late. The flight back from Aether Paradise - fucking _Paradise_ \- had been long because Harry’d had Lugia take a long way back, just in case anyone had tried to fly after them.

“Louis, we need to calm down.”

“Calm down. _Calm down_? I’m sorry did you miss the part where we just pissed off a _major fucking organization_ and showed them we have the pokemon they’ve been looking for? I don’t know about you, but last time I had a fucking _evil organization_ after me it wasn’t time to calm down.”

“I know. But Louis, we can’t just-” he seemed to rethink what he was saying. “You’re scaring the Cosmoem.”

Louis looked down at where both Cosmoem were shaking by the door. Rita was trying to pet both of them at the same to calm them down. He tried to take a deep breath.

“And yes, I remember the last time I had a ‘fucking evil organization after me’, it’s kinda part of my claim to fame,” Harry said. “And I remember they didn’t immediately track me down. They waited. I don’t think Lusamine is going to be coming after us tonight. Especially when we handled her few Pokémon so easily just now.”

Louis let out a shuddering breath. “You used Rita to stop Wicke and Faba.”

“I did.” Harry closed off then, his arms crossing in front of his chest. “Just a low level shock. It’s something we figured out how to do with Team Rocket grunts. You know sometimes people don’t take kindly to losing a battle and so they’d rather fight with their fists.” Louis knew all too well about that. “They’ll be fine. It’s not like I _killed_ them or some-”

“I _know_. I wasn’t accusing you of-” Louis dropped onto the bed and buried his face in his hands. “I thought I wouldn’t have to deal with something like this again.” He heard Harry cross the room and drop down next to him, wrapping his arm around Louis’ shoulder. “What are we gonna do? We’re not some anonymous kids anymore so it’s not like we can go hide in the woods while they chase after us. I don’t know what the police will be able to do. I bet Lusamine has already moved those pokemon so if we send anyone there they’ll find nothing.”

“Or they’ll get hurt,” Harry said.

“Or that.” Louis sat up and curled into Harry’s embrace.

They stayed like that for a few moments, Harry’s hand stroking up and down his back. “We’ll finish out the tournament,” Harry said. “Keep our heads down. Keep the Cosmoem safe. And then when the tournament is over I’ll bring the Cosmoem back to my farm. They’ll be safe there.”

Louis pulled away from him and gave him a sharp look. “No. You aren’t taking my Cosmoem with you. Besides the fact that you’re painting a big enough target on your back by having one, I’m attached to Cosmoem. I want them with me.”

“Where would you keep them? In your lab? Your very public lab? My farm is perfectly safe.”

“Yes, my labs will be fine. Once we’re off Alola there’s less of a chance of them coming after us, especially with Kalos so far away.”

“Did you forget the part where she’s _freezing fucking pokemon to keep them safe?_ I’m pretty sure an ocean won’t stop her stalking us.”

“I’m not gonna _die_. I’ll be in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world with tons of witnesses which is more than I can say for you? What happens if they try and take you out in the middle of the night? No one would know!”

Harry clenched his fist as he stood up and crossed the room. “I can protect myself just fine.”

“So can I!”

“No you _can’t_! Your instincts fucking suck! You didn’t believe me when I said she and that whole organization was evil.”

Louis saw red. “I already fucking know I was wrong! I trusted the wrong people again! I get it. But I went there completely aware they were the bad guys. I _knew_ this time. Why do you think Foxy was out when you got there?”

“Then why didn’t you bring Patsy with you?”

“Because I wanted her here to look after you in case something went wrong!” Louis snapped.

Tears sprung to Harry’s eyes as he seemed to deflate. “I told you. I can protect myself just fine. You can’t just...put yourself in danger because you think I need the protection more. We need to be a team right now. You and me are the only ones who can protect the Cosmoem from whatever Lusamine wants.”

“We could ask Niall and Liam.”

“I don’t want to involve them if we don’t have to. They’ve suffered enough.”

“Yeah. They have.” Louis deflated and fell back on the bed to stare at the ceiling. His Cosmoem floated above him and cooed. He reached up and pet Cosmoem. “We’ll keep you both safe. We just need to get through the tournament, okay?” He sat up again and made eye contact with Harry who was nodding.

That’s all they could do.


	6. Chapter 6

The round of sixteen in the tournament was spread across four days. Harry’s battle was the first day against Candice from Sinnoh, the second wildcard winner. He beat her and her ice type Pokémon easily. When he was done with the battle he healed his Pokémon himself with bought potions instead of risking to take to them to the Pokémon center. He knew it was probably paranoia but he couldn’t risk any member of the Aether Foundation getting their hands on his Pokémon.

He noticed Louis did the same thing after his battle the next day against Whitney, from Johto.

They didn’t talk about it - the fight they’d had or the Aether Foundation. Harry watched Louis from a distance each night after they ate dinner in the cafeteria, trying to figure him out. In the lull of everything he realized that Louis hadn’t shared with them what he had gone through. All Harry could remember was he’d said he’d worked it all out by talking about it with his mom. And there was nothing on record about what happened with him - same as with him, Liam, and Niall.

Harry wasn’t sure if that was entirely true after seeing how Louis had handled Lusamine and going into the Aether Foundation by himself. It seemed to him like Louis had a pretty serious hero complex and he believed he was the only person who could protect everyone. Not that there was anyway for Harry to approach Louis about this. He was closed off and Harry had a feeling - well no it wasn’t that he had a feeling. Honestly he’d asked Rita if he should confront Louis about it and she’d quickly shut him down.

He supposed Rita had a point, even though the silence only made the tension they were both feeling more palpable. If Louis felt cornered he might shut off entirely and then there’d be no chance of a reconciliation between the two of them. Harry wanted to go back to what they’d had the first couple days of the tournament. That instant connection that made him feel alive and invincible in a way no one else had. Even Niall or Liam who he knew _got_ him didn’t make him feel the way Louis did.

He wanted that back, but he had no idea how to get it back.

He only finally got a chance to speak to Louis again when they sat down on the fourth day of battles to watch Niall battle. The stadium was packed, since it was the only battle going on at that time. The other match of the day: Sidney from Hoenn versus Olympia from Kalos, had ended with Sidney beating Olympia because of dark types inherent advantage over psychic types, and it was all anyone could talk about.

“That’s the downside of running dedicated teams,” Louis was telling Liam. “There’s a reason you came in second in your group. If you’d had a electric type-“

“I _know_ that Louis, thank you. But I did this my way and should I remind you you don’t have a water Pokémon on your main team either and you almost lost to a fire type team because of it?” Liam crossed his arms over his chest.

“I’m just saying, as the person you’ll be battling in the semi-final, you are at a distinct disadvantage.”

“I’ll remember you said that when you lose your next battle.”

“Oh, tough words,” Louis said while laughing. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“The champion from Unova is pretty powerful from what I saw. He’s never had to use more than his Zoroark to win so far,” Harry said, feeling like he was okay to speak up. “No one knows what else is on his team, though there are rumors.”

“Yes, yes, another legendary owning asshole,” Louis said waving his hand dismissively. “At least he didn’t _fly in on one, Liam_. You think I forgot you did that, but you’re wrong and also fuck you if you think I’m afraid of Rayquaza.”

Harry’s shoulders slumped at the clear way Louis was ignoring him. Even Rita patting his knee couldn’t lift his spirits.

“I’m not the only one who flew in on a legendary! Harry did too.”

Again with the dismissive hand wave. “I like Harry a lot more than I like you. Also, I’m not going to be battling him until the final so I don’t need to start trash talking him down yet.”

Harry perked up. Louis just said he _liked_ him still. He hugged Rita to his chest in delight, hoping neither of them noticed the way he had lit up at that.

Liam let out a disgruntled sigh and flipped Louis off. “Get fucked, both of you.”

Louis returned the middle finger as the announcer began to speak.

“Introducing! The final battle of the round of sixteen! It will be Niall, the champion from Sinnoh, against Roxie, the second place winner from Unova! Niall has had an easy journey up until this point, going undefeated during the group stages. Roxie had a harder time of it, Unova’s group being one of the more competitive groups. She managed to secure the second place spot with six wins and two losses. Let’s see how this battle pans out!”

Louis leaned over Liam to whisper something to Harry. “This is going to be embarrassing I bet. I caught a glimpse of her team - one type only.”

“Which type?” Harry asked.

“Poison. She’s runs hybrids type too but Niall is gonna run circles around her.”

“He’ll only need one Pokémon, for sure,” Harry agreed.

“If you two want to talk I can move,” Liam said as he stood up. “Just say the words.” He pushed Harry over and sat on the other side of him.

Harry looked back towards the stage where Roxie had thrown out her first Pokémon, a Garbodor. Niall’s first Pokémon was Latias. Harry let out a breath. “Guess we know who he chose to be his one Pokémon.”

“This will be quick. Latias only needs to use a couple psychic attacks at most.”

Harry bit his lower lip as he watched the pink energy flow out from Latias’ beak and hit Koffing square in the chest.

“Latias has used psychic! That’s got to really hurt Garbodor! And Roxie is pulling Garbodor back already! Her next Pokémon is Crobat.”

Pink energy came from Latias again, another Psychic, and Harry shook his head. He could see how frustrated Roxie was becoming as she threw out her next Pokémon.

“Drapion is next up, and it seems Roxie is sick and tired of Latias because Drapion’s dark type makes him immune to psychic type moves. Niall will need to try something else.”

“Does Niall have anything that would be good against Poison-dark?” Liam asked.

“Think only ground types would work and I don’t think so,” Harry said. “He’ll have to use brute force.”

Niall called back Latias and threw out his Empoleon.

Liam let out an impressed whistle. “Brute force is always an option and I bet Empoleon has that in spades.”

Harry watched as Empoleon took a hit from Drapion before it seemed like he was grounding himself. He frowned and looked at Niall who looked relaxed, even from this distance.

The ground shook and Harry grabbed hold of Louis’ arm to steady himself.

“Empoleon has used Earthquake! It’s super effective against Drapion and has knocked him prone. Empoleon is coming in now with Steel Wing - and no Drapion can’t dodge it. Steel Wing hits Drapion right in the chest, knocking him out. Well plan B didn’t last long for Roxie.” The announcer said. “Next comes out Amoonguss, but if Roxie is hoping to use Amoonguss’ grass type moves against Empoleon she should remember that Empoleon’s steel type makes grass type only cause normal damage.”

“I hate and love that the announcer says shit like that,” Louis said. “Hate it cause they’re always exposing my plans but they do the same for my opponent if I can’t recognize the Pokémon or remember the type.”

“They have to have some cheat book or something cause they are too quick on identifying the Pokémon,” Harry said.

“Yeah,” Louis agreed. “They know our teams so I bet they have a list to prepare, but they don’t always know what moves we have.”

Harry felt himself start to relax now that him and Louis were speaking normally again. There was hope things were going to be okay between the two of them.

“Amoonguss is done with that combo attack from Empoleon and what is Roxie going to do next? She’s sent out Toxicroak - the fighting type moves can take out Empoleon - and Toxicroak goes immediately on the offense, not giving Niall any time to switch Pokémon before Toxicroak hits Empoleon with a Drain Punch! That definitely hurts him. And it’s the first hit that’s landed on Niall’s Pokémon. You can tell he’s not happy about that.”

It was true, Harry could see Niall yelling as he pulled Empoleon back before another fighting move could knock Empoleon out. Latias came back out and Harry winced in sympathy.

“Tough luck for Roxie as Latias comes back out and hits Toxicroak with psychic,” the announcer said. “And with that Roxie is left with her last Pokémon. Scolipede.”

“Well,” Louis said. “That was entertaining for all of two seconds. Not that knocking out Empoleon would have done much for her, but it would have been a bit of a twist.”

Latias struck Scolipede with a final psychic, knocking him out. Harry watched as Niall punched the air in victory before running out onto the stage to hug Latias.

“Come on,” Louis said, standing up and holding out his hand for Harry. “Let’s go congratulate the man. I bet he wouldn’t mind some victory celebrations.”

Harry took his hand and squeezed it. Everything was going to be fine. The Aether Foundation wasn’t going to bother them and they’d be going home soon.

***

The sun felt warm on Louis’ skin. He was on the beach by himself, lying out on a towel he’d borrowed from the hotel. Even though he’d been here on the island for over a week he hadn’t gotten to relax and enjoy the atmosphere like he had promised his mom and Professor Sycamore he would. Sure, he hadn’t anticipated dealing with someone trying to use Pokémon to open a wormhole, but no one could predict the future. Or well, not many people, he supposed.

He hoped the silence they were experiencing from the Aether Foundation continued. He knew deep down it couldn’t last forever. Lusamine would come for both of them sooner or later. She knew they had what she wanted. She knew where they were. He could only imagine she was waiting for the perfect chance to try and take the Cosmoem back. This would be so much easier if the Cosmoem had been willing to get into Poke Balls but of course when Louis brought it up both of them ran away from him.

Harry hadn’t gotten much better of a response from the Cosmoem, even when he pinned them with his sad, ‘I just want what’s best for you’ baby green eyes. Louis didn’t know how the Cosmoem could resist that look, cause he sure was ready to give Harry anything he wanted when he saw it. He supposed the fact that the Cosmoem didn’t have a giant crush on Harry helped a great deal.

He’d realized his crush was bad during the time they hadn’t been speaking. Usually it was easy for him to be upset with someone, but with Harry it just _hurt_. It hurt that Harry was mad at him. It hurt that he was mad at Harry. And that wasn’t normal.

Not that there was anything to do with this new knowledge. He liked Harry, oh well. They lived on different continents. There was no way anything could work between them after the tournament. Harry had his farm which he couldn’t exactly bring to Kalos, and Louis had his research, which he couldn’t exactly bring to some remote farm on Mt. Silver.

He’d hoped this knowledge had led to acceptance but he still found himself pining for more. He’d need to get over that, which was another reason he was out here by himself. Staying glued to Harry’s side was just going to make it that much more difficult to go their separate ways.

A shadow fell over him and Louis scrunched up his nose in displeasure. Who could be bothering him? Harry was back at the resort with Niall playing ping pong last he’d heard, and Liam was training in the gym.

Grits of sand hit his cheek. 

“Get up and give us all the Pokémon you have on you.”

_What the fuck?_ Louis thought as his eyes opened.

Standing over him were two people, a girl and a boy, with dyed hair, and masks covering their mouths. They both had shirts with skulls on it and Louis groaned. Some local punks no doubt. He hadn’t heard anything about Alola having problems but it didn’t surprise him.

“No,” he said as he closed his eyes again.

This time they didn’t just kick sand in his face, one of them landed a kick right in his side. He grunted in pain, not expecting that.

“We’ll just beat you bloody until you hand them over,” the girl said.

Louis opened his eyes just in time to see the boy trying to kick him again. He grabbed his ankle and pulled, knocking the boy to the ground. “You _really_ don’t know who you’re messing with.” He scrambled back and to his feet, hand reaching down to his belt. “Two on one isn’t exactly fair but I guess I can use two Pokémon to make it even.”

The girl laughed and threw the one Poke Ball Louis could see on her belt, letting out a small green and pink Pokémon that Louis didn’t recognize. He didn’t have time to point a Pokédex at it before the boy threw out a Raticate.

_Pathetic_ , he thought.

He tossed two Poke Balls out: Eel and Foxy. The look of fear on both of their faces was worth it, but he wasn’t going to let them get away easily. His side _hurt_ from that kick.

“Foxy, use flamethrower against the green thing, Eel, use Dragonclaw against the Raticate.”

“Wait, no!” The girl called as she had to dodge the flame that toasted her Pokémon. She called the Pokémon back. “You fucking asshole. You could have burned me.”

Louis shrugged as the boy pulled back his Raticate. “Don’t pick fights you don’t think you can handle, I guess.” He left Eel and Foxy out just in case they wanted to try anything. “You probably don’t want to take any of the trainers you find on this beach on. Most of us are gym leaders or champions from other parts of the world.”

The girl grabbed hold of the boy’s shoulder and pulled him away. “Fuck you.”

Louis waited until he was sure they were running away before he called both Pokémon back. He sighed, rolling his eyes at how some things never changed. There were always teenagers who thought they could bully people into getting what they wanted.

“Louis! Louis are you okay!?”

Louis looked and saw Harry running towards him, Rita far ahead of him. He knelt down to let Rita run up into his arms. “Hey you,” he said to Rita, standing up just as Harry caught up to them.

“Pikachu, pika pik pikachu,” Rita said to him.

“What?”

“We saw you bring out Foxy and Eel and I just thought- I was so worried.” Harry bent over to catch his breath. “Was it someone from the Aether Foundation?”

“No, it was just a couple kids who wanted to take my Pokémon. They were wearing masks with skulls on them. I sent them packing.”

“Oh thank god,” Harry said, dropping into the sand. “I thought they’d tried to pick you off while you were alone.”

“Nope,” Louis said. He sat down next to Harry, his towel all messed up from the battle. He winced a little and Rita narrowed in on it.

“Pika?”

“What’s the matter?” Harry asked, eyes snapping to where Rita was looking. “What happened?”

“Nothing. One of them just kicked me when I told them I wouldn’t battle them.”

“Fucking assholes,” Harry said. “Here, Chance will be able to heal you.”

Before Louis could argue Harry had let Chance out of her Poke Ball and was telling her to check Louis over. Louis had no choice but to submit to her examination because any other option wasn’t possible. She was just like every other Chansey and Blissey he’d ever gotten a physical from, except with the added benefit that she cared for Harry, and therefore cared for Louis.

Chance poked and prodded at him, pulling his shirt up so she could see and feel the damage, before humming, her paw pressed up against his ribs. Louis felt the vibrations sink through him and the pain subsided. She retracted her paw and put his shirt back down.

“Thank you,” Louis said. “I feel much better.” She trilled in happiness and Louis looked over at Harry. “Thank you too, Harry.”

Harry nodded. “I know you like playing hero so I assumed the worst.”

“I’d tell you if they showed up,” Louis said.

“Would you really?”

“Of course. I’d want you to go back and get the Cosmoem out of here.”

Harry huffed. “That’s not -“ he cut himself off and then restarted. “I think you have a hero complex. I’m not sure where it comes from, but I can guess it’s from whatever you experienced as your time becoming champion.”

Louis couldn’t stop his lips from twitching into a smile. “Uh, yeah. My mom said the same. That I have a hero complex.”

“What happened? What did you go through?” Louis wanted to tell Harry. He knew Harry probably wouldn’t judge him, but he’d only ever spoken about it with his mom, and that had been over a decade ago. “You said something,” Harry continued, “about Lusamine. About trusting the wrong people. Again.”

“Yup,” Louis said. “That’s basically the crux of it. His name was Lysandre. He invented the Holo Caster and I, along with a lot of people, really liked him. He was charismatic, a bit strange, but very friendly. When he spoke to you, you felt like you were the only person in the world. And even if what he was saying was a bit weird, you couldn’t help but trust him. Or at least believe he wasn’t a bad guy.”

“But he was.”

“Yeah. Turned out he was the leader of this gang called Team Flame. I’d been trying to take them down the whole time I was competing to become champion. They were evil and you could tell they wanted to hurt people. When I found out Lysandre was their leader I was completely heartbroken. And when I found out what they wanted to do I knew I had to stop him, even though we had been sort of friends. But, that fact made me a little dumb. I kept trying to reason with him, and he kept trying to reason with me. I kept letting him get away because I couldn’t...I couldn’t stop him.”

“You mean ...kill him?”

“Yeah. Exactly. The police weren’t able to catch him either and the only option we had was to kill him but I couldn’t do it.” Louis took a deep breath. “Not at first. Not for a while.”

“But eventually…”

“You do what you have to do to survive. He was going to blow up the lab we were in, potentially killing me and a bunch more people. It wasn’t a choice I liked making and I had so many nightmares for years. Casper used to stay up with me and stop me from dreaming.” Louis could feel the way his voice was trembling.

“You still don’t know if you made the right choice, do you?”

“Some days it’s easier than others to know. He would have killed me if I hadn’t killed him and most days I think my life was worth more to me.”

Harry reached over and grabbed his hand. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“I’m glad you’re here too,” Louis said, squeezing his hand. “I’m going to miss you when this is over.”

“It doesn’t have to be over.”

“What?” Louis asked, looking at Harry.

He was looking at their hands in the sand. “I’m just saying that when the tournament is over we don’t need to say goodbye. We can still...be friends? Be more? If you’d like?”

Louis’ heart was suddenly pounding in his chest. “And what? You live in Kanto. I love Kalos. We’ll just look at that distance and say ‘screw it’ and somehow figure out how to travel back and forth between the two to see each other? Me spending weekends on your farm? You coming to the city once a month?”

“Yeah. Something like that. Lugia doesn’t get to fly with me nearly as much as they’d like.”

“You make it sound so easy. It can’t be this easy.”

“I don’t think it’ll be easy but I do think it would be worth it. And I want to try. I _like_ you, Louis. Have since I first laid eyes on you and found out you were the person behind some of my favorite research topics. And I think you like me too.”

“I do. _I do_. It’s why I was so scared of you getting involved with this. It’s why I want to protect you.”

“It’s why I want to protect you too,” Harry said. “I’ve _never_ felt like this before. I’ve never been with anyone, dated anyone. It’s just been me and Rita and our farm since I grew up, but I wouldn’t mind trying.”

Louis laughed a little, unable to believe it. He reached up and cupped Harry’s cheek, bringing their foreheads together. “You’re talking like you think I’ve had a slew of relationships. You’ve been spoiled by how I am here. Normally I’m drowning in work. I frequently remove the clock from my lab because the ticking bothers me when I’m waiting for something. I forget dinner and important dates because my research is so important. Not exactly the best person to have a long term relationship with.”

“I jump between being a hermit who lives on a farm and some nomad who spends way too much time exploring the world looking for lost Pokémon to bring home and take care of. I’ll probably forget just as many dinners or important dates as you.”

“It sounds like we might be perfect for each other in some ways,” Louis said.

Harry nodded, rubbing noses with Louis. “Yeah. We do sound kind of perfect.”

“Can I kiss you?”

“I’ve never-“

“It’s okay. You’re the youngest Pokémon champion in the world. I’m sure you’re a fast learner,” Louis said.

Harry hit his shoulder lightly right before Louis leaned in and captured his lips in a kiss. It was quick, just lips touching and staying against each other for a moment before Louis pulled back.

“Is that electricity I feel coming from you or Rita in my lap?” He asked.

Harry laughed and reached for him, requesting another kiss. Louis couldn’t deny him.

***

Harry was on cloud nine. Nothing could upset him. Not even the thought of the Aether Foundation finding him and trying to get the Cosmoem. He was confident if they came he and Louis could take them on. That was the kind of strength he felt Louis gave him.

He hadn’t planned on telling Louis how he felt when he’d run out to him. He had planned on sitting on the feelings for a while longer, maybe until they were back and into a new routine, but he was glad he’d decided to say something. Knowing Louis felt the same, that Louis was just as willing to try and make something work between the two of them, only made him feel stronger.

It was what carried him easily through his quarterfinal match. That and the fact that he’d battled against Clair multiple times over the years. He had his strategy against her dragon types down to a T. 

Louis gave him a sweeping kiss for winning in front of Niall and Liam, who didn’t seem surprised.

“Louis let us know from day one that he had a hard on for you,” Niall said. “It’s why I came over and spoke to you the first night.”

“Yeah you’re a regular Cupid,” Louis said.

Harry blushed and tried to hide it by ducking his head into Louis’ neck.

“I take it this means you two _won’t_ be joining us for dinner tonight?” Niall asked with a wag of his eyebrows. “Maybe you two are going to your own celebratory meal.”

If it was possible Harry was sure he’d turn even redder. It wasn’t like that _hadn’t_ been something on his mind. He’d even brought up the fact he was a complete novice when it came to sex to Louis because he’d been hoping this went somewhere. But Niall bringing it up so casually was something he hadn’t been expecting.

“No, we’ll be with you tonight,” Louis answered after he kissed Harry’s forehead. “Not sure about other nights though.”

Niall nodded, face mock serious. “Of course, of course. You’ll save the celebrations for when you both clear the quarterfinal.”

“Do you really need to be so crude?” Liam asked. 

“What? It’s not like they’re the only ones fucking. Did you know there’s complimentary condoms and lube in giant glass bowls down in the lobby? It’s like the people who organized this know gym leaders are always causing drama by sleeping around. And by giving us a high stakes tournament where we’re sharing hotel rooms? They want us to fuck.”

Liam opened his mouth to argue and then seemed to think better of it. “Congrats on winning, Harry.”

He was just the first to go through. Over the next three days Niall, Liam, and Louis beat their opponents to get to the semi-finals. Louis’ match in the quarterfinal had been the one to watch. That had been the toughest battle Harry had watched Louis faced yet, against Unova’s current Champion, Zayn. It turned out the rumored legendary that Zayn had? Yeah make that three. Luckily Reshiram, Zekrom, and Kyurem had all been weak to fairy and dragon moves. Patsy and Eve had been able to take the two of them out with their fairy moves and Puff Ball had come in to finish Kyurem off.

Harry had run right out to Louis, throwing his arms around him and hugging him. He only let Louis go when Zayn came over to shake Louis’ hand for a hard fought battle.

“Come out to dinner with me,” Harry said after Zayn had walked away.

“We go to dinner every night,” Louis said, but he was smiling.

“No. I mean. _Dinner_. Like a date. There’s that nicer restaurant up on the top floor, instead of the buffet area.”

Louis kissed him. “I knew what you meant, I was just teasing. Of course I’d love to go to dinner with you. Don’t have anything fancy to wear but I’m sure you won’t mind.”

Harry shook his head. “You’ve seen everything I brought already.”

They left Rita and the rest of the pokemon back in their hotel room, partially to protect the Cosmoem, but also to give the two of them some privacy. Not that Harry didn’t love Rita but he couldn’t exactly take her on a date. Even if Louis did love her too, and she seemed to sometimes prefer him to Harry (no Harry wasn’t jealous).

His hands were sweaty with nerves as they made their way up to the top floor of the hotel. They saw a couple other trainers they knew. Jasmine and Whitney were just leaving the restaurant, both giggly from drinking a little too much. Whitney gave Louis a cheerful middle finger for knocking her out, which he took with a laugh. Lance and Clair were seated at a window seat, both looking stoic, but Harry knew that meant they were probably on good terms again. Louis pointed out Wulfric and Olympia from Kalos, and that Grant from Kalos was the one eating dinner with Erika.

Apparently Niall had been right. A lot of trainers were taking this tournament as a chance to meet other trainers and “hook up”. Harry felt his stomach sink at that thought. Those relationships weren’t meant to last. They were just for island fun.

Harry wanted to make this thing with Louis last. He hoped it would.

Louis made the conversation light during dinner, keeping Harry’s attention all on him. He spoke about his mom and her time as a Gogoat racer. He filled Harry in on updates about his sisters’ adventures in the last week.

“They made it to Dendemille City, which is like, winter twenty-four seven, and they called my mom begging for money to get a jacket.”

Harry laughed. “Why didn’t they pack one?”

“How should I know? But that’s as far as they made it before they decided they weren’t cut out to continue battling the league.”

“That and the fact there are currently no gym leaders?”

“Yeah, that too,” Louis said with a laugh. “They’re home now, so they’ve been able to watch the tournament.”

“My mom and sister have been watching too. They keep emailing their reactions to different trainers. Gemma said she’s put money on Liam to win.”

“Because of Rayquaza?”

“Because of Rayquaza.”

“Fucking Liam,” Louis laughed.

“I mean, it’s a good scare tactic. You’re going to be going up against that. How are you going to handle it?”

“Uh, the same way I took down other legendary dragons I’ve faced? Fairy moves.”

“Yeah but I mean face to face with a legendary isn’t the same as thinking about it.”

“No, it isn’t but I’m really not worried. Are you nervous about your match up with Niall?”

“A little. Mostly because I haven’t seen everyone he has. I know he brought a legendary but I don’t know which one. So I’m just going to focus on building my team around battling Rayquaza in the final.”

Louis’ eyes went wide and Harry felt a quick kick to his shin. “You take that back!”

The next time Louis went to kick playfully at Harry’s ankles Harry was ready and he caught Louis’ foot in between his. They were both laughing as they began to tap each other’s feet lightly, scuffling under the table. Louis reached over for Harry’s hand on top of the table and held onto his wrist.

“Want to go back to our room after this?” Louis asked.

Harry felt himself flush a little but he held eye contact with Louis. “Yeah. I’d like that a lot.

***

“Maybe we should have thought this through,” Harry said as they fell into their hotel room and were greeted by all of their pokemon they’d left out.

It had definitely put a damper on the mood they had set in the final bits of dinner. And in the elevator on the way back down to the room. And in the hallway, when Louis pressed him against a wall and kissed him within an inch of his life.

“Alright, Poke Balls,” Louis said with a clap of his hands. “Let’s go.” He grabbed one Poke Ball off the kitchen counter and began putting the pokemon away.

Harry joined him, looking apologetic as he did but well, it was going to be bad enough with Rita and the Cosmoem. He couldn’t even let them outside on the balcony because he didn’t want them to be spotted. “Be good,” he said as he pat Rita on the head.

It was weird shutting and locking the bedroom door on Rita but he didn’t have much time to think about it. Louis was right there, after all.

Harry hesitated.

“Nervous?” Louis asked.

“A little.” The last couple nights had just been them cuddling and kissing. They hadn’t managed to move either bed so it had been a tight fit in one of their beds but it had been worth it. But tonight. Tonight felt like there would be more. More like mutual orgasms. “But, I uh, I want to give you a congratulations.”

That would have sounded sexier if he hadn’t stuttered, but he was new at this.

Louis didn’t seem to mind. He smiled and stepped towards Harry. “A congratulations? What if I have my own congratulations to give you?”

Harry swallowed as Louis reached up and tangled his hands in his curls. He tugged gently and Harry bent his neck just a little. Just enough so their lips could press together. It was a tender kiss, something Harry was familiar with now. He felt confident when he kissed Louis. He felt confident with the way Louis’ hand dropped from his to his neck, squeezing gently.

He touched Louis’ hips, then went further, hands drifting under his shirt. Louis’ skin was warm. He let his fingertips run up and down the curve of his side, trekking higher and higher with each swipe.

Louis giggled against his lips. “Tickles. Just put your whole hand on me.”

Harry did what he was told as Louis moved to kiss his chin. He tilted his head to the side, giving Louis access to his neck. Louis trailed soft kisses down to his collarbone.

Harry stood there, unsure what else he should be doing. It felt good, his throbbing cock made sure he was well aware of that, but he wanted to do more. He wanted to give back to Louis. He didn’t want to move his hand in case he tickled Louis again and broke the mood.

Louis stepped back from him. “Can I blow you?”

Harry’s brain short circuited. “Uhhh.”

Louis seemed to understand though, with the way he smiled. Wicked and sharp.

He dropped to his knees and his hands went to Harry’s belt. Harry couldn’t stop himself from putting his hand on Louis’ head and he hoped that was okay. He hoped Louis wouldn’t be disappointed.

“Oh, Harry,” Louis said as he unzipped his jeans and his hand wrapped around his cock. “You’re fucking huge.”

Harry blushed. He couldn’t tell if that was from Louis’ words or the pleasure that pulsed through him as Louis’ hand on him. No one had ever- “Ah,” he said instead of saying something important. Or intelligent. Maybe he should have thanked Louis?

Louis glanced up at him through his eyelashes. “This okay?”

Harry nodded. “Y-yup.”

Louis didn’t immediately put his mouth on him. Instead he took his time. He pumped his hand up and down Harry’s cock, almost like he was learning it. It was torture. His lips were right there. His breath was warm and it hit his cock every time he breathed.

Harry shivered.

“You’re getting wet,” Louis said.

Harry looked down because he didn’t understand and then he realized, Louis was talking about the precum. His hips stuttered forward. “Yea-yeah. No one’s ever done this before.”

Louis nodded. “I remember. It feels good though, right?”

It was just a hand but Harry nodded feverently. “Amazing.”

Louis kept going. Hand moving slow. It was so different from how Harry normally did it. He went fast and clinical, nothing to go off of for a fantasy until he’d gotten here. And met Louis. It was drawing him closer and closer to the edge, a slowness he’d never experienced. It made his stomach tight with anticipation and Louis just kneeled there, taking in the sight of his cock getting redder, and redder.

He gripped Louis’ hair, trying to get him to move closer.

“I’m-I’m-”

He thought that was enough warning, but apparently it wasn’t. Louis was just about to get his mouth on him (to do what Harry didn’t even know) when he came. Blood was roaring in his ears as his vision whited out.

When he came down it was to see Louis’ lips and chin coated in come. He felt a little dizzy at that picture, and his cock gave a lazy twitch in appreciation.

“Holy fuck,” Harry said.

Louis pushed him onto the bed so he could collapse. He fell back on the bed and laid there with his arms spread out. He didn’t even care that his pants were unzipped and his cock was still out.

“I wanna do you,” he said, making a grabby hand for Louis, but not in his direction. “But I can’t move.” Louis laughed and Harry felt the bed dip. Louis was kneeling by his head. “Can you?”

Louis unzipped his pants and Harry’s mouth watered when he saw his cock. He understood now why Louis had just been staring at him. He wanted to touch it. He wanted to touch Louis.

He managed to roll over the second time Louis’ hand stroked down his cock. He was face to face with his hips then and it wouldn’t take much to lean forward and just - just put his mouth on Louis.

His cockhead was red and uncut. Each pull of his cock brought the foreskin back and Harry swallowed. And then wrapped his lips around the tip.

He heard Louis gasp above him. It was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard. He hollowed his cheeks as he pulled off, and then licked the tip of Louis’ cock. He wanted to hear more of that sound.

The angle was weird: him propped up on his side, Louis kneeling and jacking off, but he was going to make this work. He couldn’t get too much of Louis’ cock in his mouth but it was okay. Louis’ hand covered the rest of what he couldn’t reach.

Harry steadied himself by gripping Louis’ hip as he tried to keep some semblance of a rhythm going. He only knew he was doing okay because Louis’ noises were getting louder, and higher pitched.

“That’s it, that’s it,” Louis kept repeating over, and over, and over again until he gasped.

His other hand tangled in Harry’s curls and pulled his close as he came. There was no warning but Harry knew enough to swallow and try and keep his teeth wrapped behind his lips, even as Louis’ cock pulsed in his mouth.

It was Louis’ turn to drop onto the bed. Harry joined him, curling up next to him as he watched Louis try and catch his breath. He realized they were still both mostly clothed and it probably made a ridiculous picture. Them, pants undone but still on, laid close together on the double bed, out of breath from a hand job and a sloppy blow job.

Nothing could have been more perfect.

Except maybe...

“Wanna go again?” Harry asked.

Louis just laughed and kissed him. “Gimme a minute.”


	7. Chapter 7

Louis woke up pressed against Harry’s back. They’d left the window to the bedroom open during the night just to feel the sea breeze for one more night. Today was the last day of the tournament. Tomorrow morning they’d be heading back home. Louis closed his eyes and cuddled closer, wanting to savor the morning for as long as he could.

It had been an incredible three days of rest since they’d won the quarterfinal. It had been spent exploring the resort together during the day and then in bed each night. Louis had never felt this connected to another person before and he knew already he was going to miss Harry more than he could imagine. They were already planning for Harry to come to Lumiose City at the end of June, and then Louis would try and have a break in July for him to visit Harry on the farm. It was a start at the very least.

And if nothing else failed they had their phones and Holo Casters. Well, Harry would have a Holo Caster as soon as Louis got back to Lumiose City and sent him one.

“What time is it?” Harry mumbled, voice rough with sleep.

“Dunno, love. I just woke up myself.” Louis kissed the knot at the top of his spine.

“We should get up soon though, shouldn’t we?”

“Rita or Foxy will get us up if we’re late,” Louis assured him, even as Harry rolled over.

He looked just as sleepy as he sounded and Louis dropped another kiss on his jaw. “We should get breakfast. Big battles ahead of us today.”

“Can’t wait to face you in the final,” Louis said. “I’m gonna kick your ass.”

Harry snorted. “You wish. I watched all your matches. I know all your secrets.” Louis felt the weight of his Mega Bracelet and he couldn’t help but smile. He hadn’t had to use it yet all tournament but he had a feeling he would need it today. “What is it?” Harry’s eyes drifted to his bracelet. “Your bracelet. Is there something in your bracelet?” Harry’s eyes narrowed and then he sat up. “Mega Evolution.”

Louis’ eyes widened in surprise. “How did you figure that one out?”

Harry broke into a wide smile. “It is isn’t it?! You can mega evolve! Holy shit that’s so cool.” He grabbed Louis’ wrist and looked at the bracelet, tracing his fingers over the three stones. Louis watched the way he examined each stone, face shifting between awe and deep thought. “That was supposed to be my next stop after Shoal Cave,” he said after a moment.

“Huh?” Louis asked.

“I planned to go to Kalos. I’ve already told you about reading your research. I’d intended to go to Lumiose and speak to you, and then meet with Professor Sycamore about mega evolution. From my understanding there are a lot of stones that haven’t been found yet so I was hoping he’d find a way to commission me to help him track down the stones.”

Louis’ mind was stuck on the first part Harry had said. “You planned on coming to find me? Years ago?”

Harry looked up at him and nodded. “Yes. You are the foremost scientist on pokemon breeding after all.”

Louis shook off Harry’s hand from his wrist so he could hold his hand instead. “I think I prefer us meeting this way. I think you would have taken one look at my lab and run the other way.”

“I really doubt that.” Harry leaned over and kissed him.

“Pika, pik pik.”

They broke apart to see Foxy had opened the door and Rita was sticking her head in.

Louis huffed a laugh against Harry’s lips. “Looks like it’s time to get up.”

It didn’t take them long to get ready. They’d packed their bags the night before. They weren’t leaving until tomorrow morning but they’d agreed that with the closing ceremony they wouldn’t have time to pack tonight - so last night it was.

“We’ll leave Darcy and Eel here, right?” Louis asked as they said goodbye to the Cosmoem. “I know we have to turn in our alternate Poke Balls before the match but Darcy and Eel don’t have to be inside the balls do they?”

“I don’t think so? We can always pretend to not know what happened to them. ‘Oh no! How did they escape?!’ Good impression?”

“You’re an actor, Harry.”

The moment they got down to the lobby they were swept up in a whirlwind by event organizers, along with Niall and Liam. They were brought down to the stage where all three battles would take place and introduced to a slew of people Louis had only vaguely heard of, including the island Kahuna who had come up with the idea of the entire tournament: Hala. He was a jovial looking dark-skinned man, just a bit shorter than Louis, and portly. He wore his grey hair up in top knot and had waxed his moustache into a perfect handlebar.

“Greetings to our final four competitors! You four have been absolutely magnificent this entire tournament. When I presented this tournament idea to the other Kahunas and then Elite Four members across the world, I could only begin to hope that we’d get trainers of your caliber to come. Not only have you all shown you are excellent battlers, but you’ve continued to show the power of bonds with your pokemon teammates. I hope that this experience has been as rewarding for you as it has been for us. And I also hope that if we do this again in say, four years, you will want to compete again.”

Louis glanced at the three others and smiled.

“Hell yeah!” Niall said. “I’m gonna need to defend my championship.”

“More like you’re gonna need to win it after you get crushed by me,” Liam said.

Louis smacked Liam on the knee. “You’d need to get past me first.”

“None of this matters because me and Rita are gonna win.”

All three of them turned to Harry and began bantering until Hala interrupted them with a laugh. “I appreciate your spirit and I’m glad you all have become friends, but if we can refocus.” They shut up with only a few more jostling of elbows. “Today’s semi-finals will be between Louis and Liam, and Harry and Niall. There will be thirty minutes in between each semi-final and one hour before we start the final. This will give you time to heal your pokemon and decompress. You must register your team with us today, and turn in your alternate Poke Balls just like you have done before. The team you pick will be the one you’ll use for both matches, so please pick wisely.” Hala looked at each of them to make sure they understood. “Louis and Liam will battle first, and then Harry and Niall. The winners of each match will then battle in the final, but who ever loses please don’t run away! We will be having celebrations tonight and we would like all of you to join us. Are there any questions?”

None of them had any questions. They were then separated to register their teams in secret, so none of them would know the team the other picked. Louis knew it wouldn’t do much for the final since they’d see their match ups in the semi, but by then you’d already be locked into a team. He handed over Eel’s Poke Ball immediately to the woman registering him, but then hesitated. He needed to bring Xerneas because all three of the others would have a legendary on their team but who’s slot would Xerneas take?

Ultimately he handed over Ptera’s Poke Ball, deciding to risk losing his rock and ice type moves to gain Xerneas’ pure power.

And then the four of them were brought back into the trainer waiting rooms to wait. Knowing he was going to go first made it a little easier, but time still dragged. Louis spent it holding Harry’s hand and trying to do some form of meditation. He’d seen none of Liam’s battles so the only thing he knew about Liam’s team was he had Rayquaza and he ran a fighting gym. Fighting types were weak against psychic pokemon so he was going to start with Foxy and then go from there.

Harry gave him a kiss good luck when he was finally called up and Louis smiled at him. “Good luck to you too.” 

He stepped out of the trainer tunnel and into the afternoon sun. Had it really been that long that it was already afternoon? Liam walked beside him as they made their way to the stage. It was set up as a blank slate, just like the other stages had been. No one was getting an unfair advantage.

“Good afternoon world!!! We are about to begin the first semi-final match of the inaugural Pokemon World Championship Tournament! Our first trainers will be Liam from Dewford City! Liam is the gym leader for Dewford, and became a pokemon champion in Hoenn when he was just eighteen years old! He has shown throughout the tournament his strength in a fighting type team. But of course I can’t forget to mention the awesome strength of Rayquaza, which he has only had to unleash once so far, but it was enough to make a lasting impression! Give it up for _Liam_.”

The audience cheered and Louis watched Liam give a little wave.

“And our second trainer - not to be outdone, is Louis from Lumiose City! Louis is the youngest ever pokemon champion from Kalos, becoming champion at only _sixteen_. But he’s not just brawn, oh no! Louis went on to become a renowned professor, working in a lab in Lumiose City and providing vital breakthroughs in pokemon breeding! He went undefeated during the group stages with his diverse team of pokemon - of which we haven’t even seen them all! Give it up for _Louis_!”

Who even wrote that bio for him? Louis felt a little embarrassed to know that his family was probably at home watching and hearing that description of him.

“Let the first semi-final begin!!”

“Foxy let’s go!” Louis called as he threw out his first Poke Ball.

Foxy landed on the ground at the same time Liam’s first pokemon came out.

_Lucario._

Louis was _so_ good at this.

“And our first match up is a Lucario against Delphox! Lucario is a fighting-steel type which means that psychic moves won’t work against her but it looks like Louis was prepared for that with Delphox! Lucario’s steel type makes her weak to fire!”

Louis wasn’t prepared for this, he was lucky. Liam had no doubt hoped he’d lead with a psychic type and not Foxy. Shame.

Lucario ran for Foxy and hit her with a punch.

“Oh looks like Lucario is first to make contact with a Focus punch! But Delphox is resistant to fighting type moves so she is just gonna shake that one off.”

“Foxy, use flamethrower!” Louis yelled.

Foxy didn’t need to be told twice, opening her mouth and shooting fire out at Lucario. It hit and Lucario was knocked onto her back. It took her a moment but she got up and Louis called for Foxy to deliver another flamethrower. He was going to make this as painless as possible.

Rocks came flying up and struck through Foxy’s flamethrower. They hit her in the face, dropping her to the ground.

“Lucario has used rock slide and it looks to have taken the wind out of Delphox’s sails!”

Huh. So maybe Liam had been prepared for Foxy.

Louis needed to end this match up quick. “Foxy, use overheat!”

He watched as the ground around Foxy lit up with fire. It surrounded her and she focused it into her palms before shooting it right at Lucario. Liam tried to have Lucario dodge but the blast was too big.

It hit Lucario and she fainted.

Crisis averted.

Across the stage Louis could see Liam looked frustrated but determined. He sent out his next pokemon.

“Next up for Liam is his Blaziken! A little fire versus fire here? Except hmmm, isn’t Blaziken weak to psychic types? What _could_ Liam be thinking here? Is he hoping to _shake_ things up?”

Louis _hated_ the announcer, but he had a point about Blaziken and her weakness. “Foxy, use psychic!”

Liam yelled for Blaziken to use her own attack. The ground began to shake as the pink light of Foxy’s attack hit Blaziken. The stage fractured and Louis stumbled at the same time Foxy was knocked to the ground.

“Blaziken has used Earthquake! That’s knocked Delphox out! She took a bit of beating with the psychic attack though!”

It took Louis a minute to regain his bearings and look out onto the stage. Foxy was lying prone on the ground and he swore as he called her back into the Poke Ball. Not fucking cool.

He grabbed Xerneas’ Poke Ball. This was going down.

He heard the announcer gasp when Xerneas landed on the cracked stage, shaking their head delicately. 

“Is that? Louis has brought out Xerneas! The legendary deer pokemon from Kalos! This is- this is incredible!”

Louis grinned. He could see Liam hadn’t been expecting that. Xerneas didn’t have any type advantage over Blaziken but they were resistant to fighting types, and sometimes you didn’t need type advantage. Not when you had brute strength.

Xerneas rushed Blaziken and lifted her up by their horns.

“Use outrage!” He yelled.

Xerneas shook their head violently. Blaziken went with their horns, getting caught and beaten by them. Xerneas threw Blaziken a few feet ahead of them and then reared up to stomp down.

Liam called Blaziken back before Xerneas could deal the final blow.

“Blaziken is out! What is Liam going to do now?”

Louis watched Liam consider his options. He was touching two different Poke Balls but then his hand wrapped around one and threw it out.

Rayquaza was huge. Louis had thought seeing Liam fly in on the beast had been enough but standing right in front of them was insane. It wasn’t even their height that was the most impressive. It was the way their mere presence shifted the sky. It was suddenly much darker, clouds coming in and a light rain starting to fall for the first time since Louis had been in Alola. This wasn’t to take away from how absolutely massive they were. They dwarfed Xerneas. And being so high in the air it was impossible for Xerneas to physically attack Rayquaza.

Louis smirked. Good thing Xerneas didn’t need to physically touch Rayquaza to deal out one of their most deadly attacks.

“This is absolutely incredible!” The announcer kept repeating. “To be witnessing 

“Xerneas! Moonblast!”

Xerneas reared their head back, aiming an attack directly at Rayquaza, but then Liam shouted something and Rayquaza moved with such speed that they dodged Xerneas’ attack. Rayquaza flew up high above the stadium, circled twice and then shot down, right for Xerneas.

“Xerneas! Moonblast again!” Louis screamed as he held up his arms to shield his face in case this didn’t work.

Rayquaza slammed directly in Xerneas right as they launched a second moonblast, cratering the ground. Shards of rock flew up and hit Louis’ arms. He could feel them cutting his skin and he was glad he’d thought to cover his face. That could have caused some serious damage.

He dropped his arms and looked out at the stage.

Rayquaza was laid out on top of Xerneas, both pokemon defeated.

Louis and Liam called their pokemon back.

They both seemed to realize they needed to take a moment to collect themselves. The stage which had originally been a neutral ground was now jagged with hiding places sticking up in the form of upturned stone.

Louis threw out Patsy next. She was smaller and would be able to navigate the terrain.

“Louis is using Gardevoir and that seems to be a good choice because Liam has gone for Tyranitar! I’m betting Liam was hoping to take advantage of the stage being in disarray, but now he has a grass type pokemon to go up against.”

Louis couldn’t believe his luck. Tyranitar knocked through some of the hiding stones, leveling parts of the stage with a roar.

“Patsy! Give me an energy ball!”

Patsy didn’t need to be told twice. She jumped up out of her hiding spot and threw her arms wide open. Green and yellow energy began to swirl and she forced it into a sphere as she closed her arms and aimed. 

Tyranitar didn’t stand a chance. He was too busy knocking over stones, not even paying attention to Patsy.

She fired and hit him directly in the side with the attack.

Tyranitar was out.

“What the fuck was that?” Louis screamed at Liam.

Liam just laughed and then threw out his next pokemon, right into the clearing he’d made.

“Liam’s sent out Probopass! Looks like the Tyranitar was sacrificed to make room for Probopass’ slow movement. But don’t underestimate Probopass just on that. She is an almost unbreakable force with her rock-steel subtypes.”

Louis stared at Probopass, not sure exactly what to do.

“Patsy try moonblast!”

The move seemed to bounce right off of Probopass.

“Oh, tough luck for Louis. Probopass is resistant to a lot of types. Normal, flying, rock, bug, psychic, ice, dragon, _and_ fairy are all basically ineffective. And of course Probopass is immune to poison attacks.”

_Fucking hell._

Louis wanted to yell at the announcer and ask what _would_ work against Probopass but then he noticed Probopass was pulling back and readying an attack.

Suddenly Patsy was on the defensive. She dodged the first attack - a flash cannon - but the second one hit her. It was super effective. The third attack knocked her out.

Louis called her back and tried to figure out what the fuck to do. He had three pokemon left. Eve would be useless with his fairy type moves. Same with Puff Ball and his dragon types. That only left Casper but even then...if Probopass knew a ground type it could be very, _very_ bad. Unless…

Louis felt the weight of his Mega Stone bracelet. Mega Gengar levitated above the ground. Ground type moves were useless against him. Time to use the trump card.

“Casper, you got this!” He called as he threw out the Poke Ball. Casper came out with a war cry. Louis spread his legs and held up his bracelet tapping the button that would activate the mega evolution.

White light shot out from his bracelet and surrounded Casper, and when it faded he’d evolved, his arms lengthening so it would let him float above the ground.

“Louis has...is this mega evolution? Has Louis’ Gengar mega evolved? Is that? Is this legal?”

Louis laughed. He’d read the rules over a hundred times with Professor Sycamore. It was definitely legal.

“Cas, let’s try a dark pulse!”

This attack seemed to at least work. So Louis tried it again. Probopass was too slow in setting up its next attack and third time was the charm.

Casper had managed to knock Probopass out.

“Absolutely incredible! Mega Gengar has knocked down Liam’s Probopass. Liam only has one pokemon left to Louis’ three! Can Liam get over this?”

Liam finally looked defeated. Louis could see it even across the stage. He didn’t think there was a way to beat Louis.

He threw out his final pokemon.

“And his last pokemon is a Pidgeot. Remember, Louis’ Gengar knows an electric move. This has to sting for Liam.”

Louis closed his eyes, frustrated at the announcer, but he spoke the truth.

“Cas. Lightning bolt.”

Pidgeot couldn’t dodge in time.

Louis had won.

***

Harry ducked back into the trainer tunnel to the stage as the staff began cleaning up for his and Niall’s battle. He couldn’t even run out and congratulate Louis on his victory because he had been told to wait here by the person outside with a clipboard.

“Pikachu pika pika pik,” Rita said as she climbed from his shoulder to his head.

“You’re not gonna get a better view of Louis from up there,” Harry said, crossing his arms over his chest and trying not to huff. He needed to win this match.

“Pikachu,” Rita said.

Harry looked across the hall at Niall who had headphones in. Harry could hear the heavy guitar pouring out of the headphones so he knew Niall couldn’t hear him. He was probably getting in the zone of battle. Harry moved his hand down to his belt. He’d switched out Mio for Kitsune, not for Niall because he didn’t know Niall’s full team, but because she would be useful against Patsy in the final. He’d need every advantage possible to beat Louis.

Wind blew down the tunnel.

“Pika?”

Harry looked towards the door to the trainer waiting room and frowned. The tunnel was dark so he couldn’t see the door. The wind picked up and then suddenly all he saw were two Dragonites flying right for him.

He took a step back in surprise as both of them stopped right in front of him.

“Darcy? Eel?” He said, surprised.

“What the fuck?” Niall asked. Harry couldn’t see him behind both pokemon but he could only imagine how shocked he looked.

“What happened?” Darcy and Eel both had cuts and dirt on them. Signs of a battle. Harry’s breath caught in his throat. “The Cosmoem!” Darcy nodded and roared at him. “Shit.”

“Harry, what the fuck?” Niall asked as Harry took off out of the tunnel, headed for the person with the clipboard.

“Do you know where they took Louis?” He asked her.

The woman looked startled and glanced at her clipboard before looking back at Harry. “You need to be waiting in the tunnel.”

“I need to find Louis. I have to tell him something.”

“You can’t leave, the battle will be starting in about five minutes.”

Harry clenched his hands into fists. She was just doing her job. “I’ll find him myself then.” He turned back to the tunnel. “Darcy, Eel, are you two okay to fly?” Darcy chirped but Harry could see Eel was flagging. He ran for his bag and pulled out a hyper potion. “Here. This should do you some good.” He sprayed Eel’s cuts with the potion. “I want you two to find the people who took the Cosmoem. I’m gonna be on Lugia so just call for Lugia and we’ll find you okay?”

They both chirped in agreement before taking off into the sky. Harry could hear people in the crowd gasp in surprise but he had already wasted enough time getting that in order. He ran off towards where he’d seen Louis go, Rita in front of him.

“Harry! You can’t just leave! We have a battle!” Niall called after him, but Harry was focused on finding Louis.

He spotted Liam first, by a Chansey that was healing his pokemon. Harry headed straight for him as Rita continued ahead, no doubt sniffing Louis out. “Liam!”

Liam looked up and frowned. “Harry? Don’t you have a match?”

Harry shook his head. “Where’s Louis?”

“How should I know? Hala took him somewhere to wait for the final.”

Harry could tell Liam was upset over losing but he didn’t have time for Liam’s bad mood. “But _where_?”

Liam seemed to finally register there was something wrong. “Why do you need him?”

“No time,” Harry said, looking around. He tried to keep his eyes trained close to the ground to spot Rita, and it paid off because a moment later she appeared, Louis right on her tail. “Gotta go.”

“Harry wait!”

Harry didn’t wait. He ran straight for Louis and Rita. He was halfway to them when he pulled Lugia’s Poke Ball off his belt so he could call Lugia out. Lugia came out with a roar and Harry climbed onto Lugia’s back. Lugia laid all the upright plates on their back flat except for the one closest to their neck so Harry could sit comfortably while still holding onto something. “Get on. I already have Darcy and Eel out looking for them.” Rita was right behind him, scampering up to sit in Harry’s lap.

Louis was out of breath as he climbed on behind Harry and clasped his arms around his waist. “I told Hala and the other Kahunas what was happening as I ran off. Well, the very, very short of it. I really just screamed I needed to save the world again. I think they understood.”

Lugia took off out of the arena and Harry could hear the distant cries of people telling them to stop. But there was no time. The sun was beginning to set and soon it would be hard to see people on the ground.

“Lugia look for Darcy and Eel!” Harry screamed. He needed to to be heard over the wind as they soared through the sky.

“So what happened?” Louis asked, mouth pressed close to Harry’s ear.

Harry tilted his head back. “I don’t know for sure. Darcy and Eel came to me a little beaten and bruised. It looked like they were waiting for us to leave the room alone and have the big distraction of the final. They could be anywhere.”

“I bet Lusamine is going to try and open a Ultra Wormhole as soon as she can.” Louis’ voice was dark.

Harry had to agree. He tried to see the ground underneath them but they were too high up. “Do you think they jumped to another island?”

“I don’t know. It’s possible. Lugia!” Louis yelled, and Harry had to cover his ear because Louis’d yelled right in his ear. “Head towards the beach!”

If they’d jumped to another island Harry was worried they’d never find them. Not before it was too late.

_No_. He refused to think like that. They’d find them.

The beach was completely empty and Lugia took a sharp right to fly over the ocean and head back the other way. Harry clung tightly to Lugia and he felt Louis squeeze him just as tight as the wind whipped around them. The wind died down as Lugia took off for the resort and Harry was able to open his eyes.

He could see the orange dots of Darcy and Eel up ahead, which meant Lugia definitely spotted them.

“I think Darcy and Eel found them!” Harry called back to Louis.

He wasn’t sure what Darcy and Eel told Lugia but all three of them moved together with only a few chirps and roars. Harry could only hold onto Lugia as they flew over the resort and arena, headed for a city beyond the resort.

“Shit,” Louis said, just loud enough for Harry to hear. “If she’s in the city-”

“Yeah I know,” Harry yelled back.

He could see the city coming into view and there, in what looked like the town square, was a giant swirling mass of black and purple.

They’d found Lusamine.

Harry could only wonder why the bad guys always loved the theatrics.

Lugia swooped down with enough force to shake the trees and knock a few of the people around the energy ball off their feet. All together Harry counted fifteen people, all dressed in the Aether Foundation uniform. And there, by the energy mass, was Lusamine and the two Cosmoem. The Cosmoem were weighted down to the ground so they couldn’t run away.

Darcy and Eel landed on either side of Lugia with loud thuds. Harry dismounted as gracefully as he could, Rita landing in front of him. Louis got off on the other side of Lugia.

“Patsy - make sure no one is outside. If they are make sure they stay away from here. We don’t want anyone getting hurt.” Harry could hear Louis say as he seemed to send Patsy off.

“Darcy, Eel, take on any Pokémon these people throw at you. We’re going for the Cosmoem,” Harry said as he stepped forward. He could see Louis out of the corner of his eye, hand on his belt, right over his Poke Balls. Rita scampered in front of him, electricity pulsing in her cheeks. “Rita, if anyone gets too close to us you know what to do.”

“Pikachu.”

“Where do you think you’re going?” Faba, Lusamine’s assistant approached them, his arms behind his hunched back. “You will not disrupt Lusamine while she brings the Ultra Beasts forth.”

“Move,” Louis said before Harry could say anything. “You know exactly who you’re picking a fight with, and you know there’s no way you can win.”

Faba didn’t seem concerned. “I can slow you down while Lusamine finishes getting more Ultra Beasts through the wormhole, and then you won’t be able to stop her.” He threw out a Slowbro and a Ledian.

Harry couldn’t stop himself from almost laughing. This would be over too quickly. “Lou, I got this.”

“No,” Louis said as he threw out Ptera, obviously meant for the Ledian. Ptera took off into the sky and circled above them before stopping right in front of Louis. “We’ll beat him down together. It’ll go quicker.”

Harry couldn’t argue with that as he sent out his Eve. “Eve, dark pulse the Ledian!”

“Ptera, hit that Hypno with a rock slide,” Louis called.

There was nothing Faba could do in retaliation and he clearly knew it. He was just stalling, like he had said. They needed to do something to get to Lusamine and the Cosmoem. Harry looked over at them, staring into the black and purple swirling worm hole for a moment before focusing on the Cosmoem. They were both trying to get away from the wormhole, straining against their chains. Harry wondered if their presence was the only thing keeping the wormhole open. 

He frowned and then turned back to Lugia, an idea forming in his mind. “Lugia! Use ice beam on the Cosmoem. I want them frozen solid.”

“Harry? What the fuck?” Louis called, turning his head for a second. The distraction was all Faba needed to send out his next pokemon - Slowbro - and have him aim a headbutt straight for Louis.

Ptera screeched in rage as Louis crumbled, taking the full brunt of the attack. Ptera swooped down before Harry could say anything and grabbed the Slowbro by the tail and flung it. The area was descending into chaos quickly, as another pokemon - a Granbull - came directly for him. Harry could only throw his arms up in defense, hoping the hit wasn’t going to suck too much.

“PIKACHU!”

Harry saw the yellow flash of lightning before he finished hearing Rita scream in rage. He shut his eyes on instinct, ducking down close to the ground where the electricity would get absorbed. When he opened his eyes it was to see Ptera picking up the Granbull so Rita could strike the Granbull with her tail.

_Iron tail_ , Harry thought as he saw the Granbull faint in Ptera’s hold before Ptera dropped him. He snapped his head over to where Louis had been, and he let out a sigh of relief when he saw Louis was up. He was clutching his stomach, and Harry wanted to run to him but he needed to focus. He looked over at the Cosmoem to see that Lugia’s ice beam had worked and both Cosmoem were frozen.

He let out a sigh of relief when he saw that them being frozen had done what he’d hoped.

The worm hole was closing before anything could get out.

“What have you _done_?!” Lusamine’s high pitched screech carried across the city square. “My _precious pokemon!_ ”

Harry saw Louis stumble as he tried to step forward and he ran for his side. “Louis, are you okay?”

“Think that headbutt cracked a couple ribs, hurts to breathe.” Harry reached down for Chance’s Poke Ball but Louis’ headshake stopped him. “Stop Lusamine first. Then take care of me.” He took a step forward and winced. “How’d you know freezing the Cosmoem would close the wormhole?”

“Lucky guess,” Harry said as he helped balance Louis while they walked forward.

All of the other people had scattered, run off by Darcy and Eel. He couldn’t see Faba and he didn’t want to imagine what happened when he didn’t see Ptera either. 

Rita and Eve ran in front of them right as Lusamine’s attention turned on them.

“You’ll both pay for that,” she said as she pointed at them.

Harry could see both pokemon puff up in defense, ready to protect them. He heard two thuds as Darcy and Eel landed on either side of them. He was sure it made an intimidating image.

Lusamine just laughed as she threw out a Lopunny. And then a Clefable. And then a Milotic. And then two more pokemon that Harry didn’t recognize: the grass pokemon that she’d used against them at Aether Paradise, and a brown bipedal bear with a pink face.

“Try to get to me,” she said as she turned to the frozen Cosmoem. “I’ll just unfreeze them.”

The Clefable ran right for them as the Milotic tried to strike from above by flinging itself into the air. Darcy and Eel intercepted both. Harry saw Rita dart forward, jumping between Lusamine’s pokemon and trying to make it to her. Harry knew that Rita was going to try and shock her to stop her.

The bear pokemon grabbed Rita by the tail and swung her around. Harry could only shout for her as the bear pokemon punched her over and over again while they held her. His Eve made a run for the bear but the Lopunny pounced on Eve with their punch. Eve dodged and let out a warning growl.

Louis pulled himself out from under Harry’s arm. “Eve! Foxy! Xerneas! Let’s go!” He was about to throw out three Poke Balls when Lusamine’s grass pokemon spewed out some pollen. It hit both Harry and Louis. Harry coughed as he breathed pollen in and he felt his limbs freeze up.

_Stun spore_.

He couldn’t turn his head as he dropped to the ground but he didn’t think Louis had gotten his pokemon out. Harry could hear Lugia roar but he couldn’t move to see what was going on. The sound of battle raged around him but he was completely helpless. He couldn’t even look to see if Louis was okay - if the fall with his possibly cracked ribs hurt him worse than Harry felt.

He was helpless.

Completely fucking helpless.

…

_No._

He refused. He refused to be helpless. If he could work up the energy with broken bones to save himself and Pidge at Shoal Cave he could shrug off this paralysis long enough to take Lusamine down.

He forced his eyes to close and then grit his teeth, focusing on the parts of his body that he could control. One finger, then two, then a whole hand until he’d made a fist. He used the fist to push against the ground. It _hurt_ but dammit he was going to do it.

He managed to look up right as a bright white light flashed behind the battling pokemon and Lusamine. He shut his eyes in response to the light.

Two pokemon roared. Harry didn’t recognize the roars.

The light died down and he opened his eyes.

There were two new pokemon towering behind Lusamine, one on the ground and one in the air. Harry’s eyes were drawn to the pokemon floating in the air. It resembled a skeletal, legless bat, the same color of the Cosmoem with gold crescents connecting the tips of the pokemon’s wings. Staring at it he could see the resemblance to the Cosmoem. His eyes fell to the pokemon on the ground. It looked like a large white lion with orange and yellow markings making a sun around its face.

Had the Cosmoem evolved? Into two different pokemon?

Hands grabbed his shoulder and Harry startled. Louis was standing, face beet red.

“We need to get out of the way,” he snapped as he pushed Harry up to his feet.

“How? What?” Harry asked, confused how Louis was moving when his whole body felt weighted down, but then Louis stumbled and he realized that Louis was doing this out of sheer force of will.

“Ptera. Get to Ptera.”

Harry let Louis practically drag him to Ptera who was kind enough to bend down so they could drop onto his back right as the flying evolution of Cosmoem let out a bright blue attack. It engulfed Lusamine and her pokemon and when the blue light faded Harry only had a moment to see their smoking bodies before the lion-like pokemon roared and let out its own attack. 

Ptera took off and Harry looked around for Rita but she wasn’t on with them. He couldn’t spot her on the ground either.

The lion pokemon jumped into the air and orange light surrounded it before it crashed into Lusamine and her pokemon. Harry could see the crater the attack made from the sky.

“Holy shit,” Louis said.

Both evolutions of the Cosmoem let out triumphant cries. They came together at the edge of the crater the lion had caused and seemed to put their heads together. Ptera circled once more before he landed besides the two pokemon. Harry couldn’t move; the adrenaline was gone and he was pretty sure he was fully paralyzed.

Somehow Louis was able to still move and he reached for Harry’s belt, unclipping one of the Poke Balls and calling out Chance. She took one look at them and let out a squeak before rushing for him.

“Yeah, we got hit with a stun spore I think,” Louis told her. “Not sure how well paralyze heals work on humans.”

“Pika!!”

Harry opened his eyes to Rita running up his body and stopping on his chest. He could see tears were in her eyes. He wanted to reach up and comfort her but he couldn’t move. “It’s okay,” he managed to say.

Rita shook her head and let out another, “pika pika!”

“Shush, Rita, come here. He’ll be fine,” Louis said.

“Pika pik pik pikachu.”

“Rita. Let Chance do her work. Come here. I can’t move to get you.”

Harry closed his eyes. “Go to him,” he told her.

“Pikachu,” Rita said sadly before Harry felt her weight leave his chest.

Harry lost track of time as Chance worked on healing him and Louis. The moon was high in the sky by the time she was done, and the police had finally shown up. Not that there was anything left to arrest. Harry had been pretty sure Lusamine and her pokemon had been killed in the attack from the Cosmoem but the officer who’d tried to approach them to get a statement had confirmed it. Chance had huffed and their other pokemon had pushed everyone else away to give her space to work.

The police were still there when Chance finally let them off of Ptera. Harry was walking gingerly and Louis’ waist and chest were bandaged (he’d cracked them). The two evolved Cosmoem were waiting. The lion came to Louis and knelt down next to him so they could look Louis in the eye.

The flying one settled down in front of Harry. They were giant, bigger than Lugia, and Harry reached up to touch the pokemon.

“Hello,” he said. “What’s your name?”

_Lunala_.

It was a soft voice in his head and Harry’s eyes widened in surprise. He’d never heard of a pokemon who could talk before. Not even the strongest psychic types could. He had a million questions but the Lunala shook its head.

_For you. Because you’re both kind._

Harry couldn’t help but laugh just a little. _Kind_. They were both murderers.

Lunala tapped him gently with one wing as if to tell him to stop having those thoughts.

“Do you want to stay with me or will you and the other Cosmoem travel the world?” Harry asked.

_With you._

Harry felt warm just like he always did when a pokemon wanted to stay with him. “I don’t have a spare Poke Ball. But I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”

_We’ll find you._ Lunala pulled away from him and let out a sing-songy high pitched whir. Louis’ evolution turned and looked at Lunala for a moment and then turned back to Louis. The two of them pressed foreheads together before the pokemon pulled away and followed after Lunala by foot.

Louis came over to Harry. “So am I going crazy or did your pokemon talk to you too?”

Harry giggled and wrapped Louis in a hug. “Fucking bonkers.”

“Ouch,” Louis said. “Be gentle. These ribs aren’t healed just yet.”

Harry pulled back and apologized. “Lunala told me they’d find us.”

“Solgaleo told me the same thing.” Solgaleo must have been the name of Louis’ evolved Cosmoem.

“Well I’d personally like to be told some more stuff about what went on here.”

They turned to see the officer who had tried to take statements before standing there. She had pale skin and blue hair.

“Officer Jenny!” Louis said. “Well one of the cousins.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, yes. Care to explain why there’s a crater in my city, and some legendaries now that I’m not being scared off by your pokemon.” She no doubt left out the injuries and fatality to spare both of them.

“It’s a long story,” Harry said.

“Well lucky for you I have nothing but time.”

“Lusamine has pokemon frozen in Aether Paradise. I don’t know if she moved them or not, but that’s where they originally were,” Louis said.

Officer Jenny’s face gave nothing away except a harsh grimace. “We’ll look into it. We have her second in command under arrest so hopefully he’ll do some talking. Can you round up your pokemon and come to the station with me?”

“Definitely my least favorite part of saving the world,” Louis muttered under his breath. “The fucking paperwork.”

Harry nudged him, but both of them followed Officer Jenny after collecting all their pokemon. It was going to be a long night.

***

“You know, this victory trophy is kinda hollow when you consider that I only won it because you two were off saving the world,” Niall said as they stood on the beach right beside the flight pad. He was wearing a gold medal around his neck and had the trophy at his feet.

“I’m just sad I missed that battle,” Louis said. “Rayquaza versus Giratina? Much more entertaining than the ass kicking we gave out.”

“Yeah, yeah. We’ll see what happens in four years when they do this again,” Liam said. “Not that I don’t want to see you guys until four years later of course. My gym’s got a lot of extra rooms if you need a place to crash and want to explore.”

“I might take you up on that offer,” Harry said.

The four of them had stayed two extra days. Louis still technically wasn’t clear to fly yet but it wasn’t like anyone could stop him. He’d had a long talk with Ptera and they planned on taking a slow pace back to Lumiose City. His next generation of Bunnelby had hatched and Professor Sycamore had emailed him all of the data, and even though there was nothing more he probably should want to do, in reality all he wanted was another week with Harry. That wasn’t how it could be though. He had to get back to work, and Harry had to get back to his farm. And apparently they’d both have cosmic pokemon waiting for them.

Solgaleo and Lunala.

The sun and moon. How fucking fitting.

“Come on, one big hug before we all fly out,” Niall said holding his arms open wide.

The four of them hugged with Rita on Harry’s shoulder.

“Great meeting everyone,” Liam said. “Fly safe.”

“Of course, you too,” Louis said. “And hey, don’t forget to come to Lumiose soon. I’ll get you all equipped with Mega Stone Bracelets. Pretty sure Sycamore has some stones for pokemon you already have.”

Liam waved in agreement before he called out Rayquaza and set off.

Niall gave both Louis and Harry one last hug before he flew off as well. And then it was just Harry and Louis. Standing on the beach.

“I’m gonna miss you so much,” Harry said, hugging him gently. Louis’ ribs still throbbed with the slightest bit of pressure.

“I’m going to miss you too.”

“You sure you don’t want me to fly with you?”

“Harry, you have to get back to your farm.”

“I’ll send Darcy on back. We can take Lugia to Lumiose. I can drop you off, make sure you’re settled in. It’ll be fine. The whole farm basically runs itself.”

Louis wanted to so badly. But he knew that if he got Harry to Lumiose City so soon he wouldn’t want to let him go. He needed time to get used to being alone again, because if he got a taste of Harry in his space.

“Please?”

He shut his eyes in defeat. “Alright. We’ll fly to Lumiose together.”

Harry gave him a quick kiss. “Yay!”


	8. Chapter 8

“I’m sorry I’m so late!” Louis called as he dismounted from Solgaleo right in front of Harry’s front porch. He was so frazzled he hadn’t even taken in the view of the farm. It was the first time he’d visited and he really wanted to take the view in but the sun was setting, and he’d been travelling through Kanto since noon, and all he wanted was to see Harry and hold him. “Solgaleo insisted on taking the scenic route through Kanto even though I kept insisting we could cut straight across.”

Rita ran up to him and jumped into his arms with a cry of joy. Louis hugged her but his eyes were only on Harry. Beautiful, wonderful Harry. He was dressed down and smiling as he came down the porch steps. Louis could see his other pokemon behind him, waiting their turns to say hello.

“It’s fine. Really. Legendaries are like that sometimes. Come here and hug me though.”

Louis did just that, after Rita jumped out of his arms. It was the first time they’d hugged in over a month and that month had been _torture_. He’d been right in what he’d thought would happen if Harry had come back to Lumiose City with him. Harry had ended up staying over a month in Kalos. He’d ended up working with Professor Sycamore on finding Mega Stones for the time he was in Kalos. It had given him a chance to explore like he had wanted to, while still coming home to Louis every night. 

Saying goodbye had sucked after over a month of that. But Harry eventually had to go home to check on the farm. He couldn’t stay with Louis forever.

If Louis had thought he could drown himself in work to distract from the fact that Harry wasn’t there with him, he was absolutely right. He got through another batch of Bunnelby _and_ written the first draft of his almost three hundred page research paper in the month after Harry had left. It was a little excessive.

After that first month apart it got a little easier. Harry started flying over every weekend, and now, finally, with the completion of his third draft going off for peer review, Louis had time to go to Harry.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he said into Harry’s neck. He smelled freshly showered.

“I missed you too,” Harry said. “Now, do you want the tour, or some food? I have dinner out on the kitchen table. Oh! We should put your stuff inside-”

Louis grabbed his hand. “Show me your farm. I know it’s getting dark but it’s all I’ve thought about on the journey over.”

Harry lit up. He started heading off down the path Louis and Solgaleo had come up. The sun was just about to see, leaving the natural light they were left with a hazy orange and red. Harry paused to rub Solgaleo’s nose in greeting before he started the tour.

“We won’t head to the quarry tonight. Most of the pokemon have gone to bed. But as you can see I have five pastures now. I used to only have three but since getting back I’ve gotten an influx in interest so I’ve finally had the chance to expand like I’ve wanted. We’ve added a couple more species of pokemon from different regions. I sent you pictures of the Blitzle foals Niall sent me from Unova, but I also got something new and exciting in the other day. I think you’ll appreciate these two a lot.”

They’d reached the barn behind the house and Harry unlocked it. There was a low purr and Louis saw Mio stand up with a stretch. Louis reached out and scratched Mio’s head. “Hello boy,” he whispered as Harry turned on a light.

The barn lit up in soft yellow light and Louis looked around. The barn was clean and modern, with each of the stall doors Louis could see painted with different pokemon on them. He stepped away from Harry to approach a stall that had Ponyta on them and when he peeked inside he saw a Ponyta.

“Aww, that’s cute,” he said, pointing to the drawing.

Harry nodded. “I had my first tour last week and the students painted these.”

“A tour?”

“Yeah. I’ve spoken with some schools in Johto and Kanto and organized times for classes to come here for a tour to see different pokemon all living together. Since the first class was older I had them do something to help them leave their imprint on the farm, hence the paintings.”

Louis turned down the hall and saw that the skill of paintings varied greatly but they were all cute in their own way. “So what Pokemon did you want to show me?”

Harry led him passed stalls of more Ponyta, Tauros, and Miltank until they got to the end of the hall. There wasn’t any distinct drawing on this door, just brightly colored shapes and a sun with the words “Baa Baa” across it.

“The kid who had this stall wasn’t confident in their drawing skills but I think it came out alright. Take a look inside.”

Louis peeked over the top of the stall door and gasped when he saw a Gogoat and three Skiddo. Their brown coats gleamed in the light of the barn and it only took a moment for the Gogoat to notice him. “Where did you get these?” Gogoats were native to Kalos, used as a form of transport. People also rode Gogoats competitively (his mom being one of them when she was younger.)

“Your mom found me someone who had a retired Gogoat. They were going to use her as a breeding mare but I offered to buy her and her first set of eggs. The Skiddos hatched only last week. It’s been _so hard_ not to tell you all about this. My first successful egg hatch!”

Louis was touched, especially that Harry and his mom had a relationship outside him, and he looked at the Skiddo and Gogoat again. “But why?”

“I wanted you to have something that reminded you of home when you were here. I’m hoping to get more native pokemon from Kalos here, but it’s all about finding the ones that can adapt here best.”

Louis’ jaw hung open in surprise as Harry continued to ramble about different climates and soil needs. “I want to move in.”

Harry snapped his attention to him. “Wha-?”

Louis shook his head. He hadn’t meant that to come out. But it was just… “Not, not right this second. Like obviously I’m not going to just invite myself into your life like that. And I still have work to finish up in Kalos, another round of edits, then more peer review, then more edits before I even _think_ of publishing. And my apartment lease just got extended for another year but I can always keep it just to have some place for when we go back to Kalos. But yeah, I’d...like to talk about moving in.”

Harry was the one staring at him now with his jaw hanging open in surprise.

Louis looked down and he wondered if maybe that had been the wrong thing to say. It had definitely come up too quickly. “I’m sorry if I overstep-”

“No! No I was just… I was just thinking I’d need to get to work on expanding the house. You’ll need an office space.” 

Louis met Harry’s eyes. “Yeah?”

Harry nodded and opened his arms wide for a hug. “I’ve been trying to think of ways to split my time better in Kalos.”

Louis shook his head in disbelief as he stepped into Harry’s embrace. “You have so much more space! You saw how cramped the Bunnelby were. Just think if I ever wanted to move onto different pokemon! It would be chaos in the lab.”

Harry kissed his forehead. “It’ll be chaos here too once you start breeding bigger Pokémon. But I think it would be good.”

Louis thought it would be good too. They had so much to work out: Harry’s house extension, moving his lab equipment here, terminating his work with Sycamore, but those could all wait. He was going to be here for two weeks. He tipped his head up to kiss Harry. 

“Pika pika pik pik pikachu!”

They broke apart to look at Rita. Harry laughed a little and picked her up. “Right sorry. Dinner. Yes of course. Right away your _highness_.” He looked back at Louis. “Come back home with me?”

Louis looped his arm through Harry’s free one. “I’d love to.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yay you made it to the end! If you liked the post please feel free to reblog the [tumblr post](http://sadaveniren.tumblr.com/post/174027409826/alola-you-have-formally-been-chosen-to) about it!


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